-The  Call  of  the  Stars 

A  Popular   Introduction  to  a   Knowledge 
of  the  Starry  Skies 


By 


John   R.  Kippax,  M.D.,  LL.B. 

M 

Author  of  "Comets  and  Meteors,"   "Churchyard  Literature,"  etc, 


"  O  ye  Stars  of  Heaven,  bless  ye  the  Lords 
Praise  him  and  magnify  him  forever," 

BENEDICITE. 


Fifty-four  Illustrations 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

Cbe    fmfcfcerbocfter    press 

1914 


vc 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 

BY 
JOHN    R.  KIPPAX 


"Cbe  fmfcfeerbocfcer  f5re0s,  Hew  l^orf? 


Go 
M.  E.  K. 


PREFACE 

THE  design  of  this  volume  is  to  present,  in  plain,  non- 
technical language,  a  concise  and  accurate  story  of  the 
starry  heavens,  together  with  the  legendary  lore  that 
time  and  fancy  have  associated  with  them.  In  its 
preparation  the  author  has  consulted  and  freely  used 
the  standard  authorities  along  the  various  lines  of 
astronomical  research,  and  to  these  his  grateful  ac- 
knowledgments are  due. 

The  book  is  not  intended  for  the  professional  reader, 
who  is  doubtless  already  familiar  with  the  facts  here 
given,  but  rather  for  the  lay  reader,  who  has  but  limited 
time  to  devote  to  the  subject,  and  yet  who  desires  to 
know  about  the  wonderful  things  in  the  sky,  with  their 
interesting  myths  and  legends. 

The  work  is  richly  illustrated  by  charts  and  diagrams, 
and  by  a  large  number  of  reproductions  of  recent 
photographs  made  by  distinguished  astronomers. 

The  charts  as  arranged  are  approximately  correct 
for  every  place  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  situated 
within  a  few  degrees  north  or  south  of  the  latitudes 
of  New  York  and  Chicago  (40°  43'  and  41°  53'  north 
latitude,  respectively) ,  and  for  all  ordinary  purposes 
represent  the  aspect  of  the  sky  for  the  different  places 
in  any  of  the  middle  latitudes  of  the  northern  hemisphere, 
at  the  local  time  of  each  place,  whatever  the  longitude 
may  be.  With  their  assistance  it  is  believed  that  the 


vi  Preface 

reader  will  experience  but  little  difficulty  in  recognising 
the  general  contour  of  the  chief  constellations,  and  the 
relative  position  of  the  principal  stars,  and  will  find 
uplifting  pleasure  in  viewing  the  "  oldest  picture-book  of 
all,"  The  Night-Sky,  "a  book  whose  pages  turn  with 
the  gliding  years." 

The  sun,  planets,  and  other  members  of  the  local 
solar  system  are  described  in  the  later  chapters  of  the 
book.  Owing  to  their  ever-changing  positions,  however, 
it  would  be  quite  impossible  to  locate  them  on  the 
charts,  after  the  manner  of  the  fixed  stars. 

The  author  desires  to  express  his  indebtedness  to  the 
following  individual  astronomers  for  the  use  in  the  book 
of  the  reproductions  of  the  many  excellent  photographs 
and  drawings:  Professors  William  H.  Pickering  and  E. 
C.  Pickering  of  Harvard  College  Observatory;  Pro- 
fessors A.  Hall,  G.  A.  Hill,  and  G.  H.  Peters  of  the  Naval 
Observatory,  Washington;  Professor  E.  E.  Barnard  and 
the  Directors  of  Yerkes  Observatory ;  Professor  Percival 
Lowell  of  Lowell  Observatory;  Professor  P.  Puisseux  of 
Paris  Observatory,  France;  and  the  Directors  of  the 
Lick  Observatory  and  of  the  Mount  Wilson  Solar 
Observatory  of  the  Carnegie  Institution,  California. 

To  other  friends  for  kind  and  gracious  service  his  best 
thanks  are  also  due:  to  Mr.  C.  J.  Helm  for  drawings 
from  the  author's  rough  drafts,  and  to  H.  Kippax,  C.  E., 
for  the  interesting  article  on  Time. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  hoped  that  the  book  may  be  of 
service  in  helping  on  a  rapidly  growing  popular  interest 
in  the  heavenly  bodies  and  their  stories. 

J.  R.  K. 

January,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 
THE  STARS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I 

GENERAL  REMARKS 3 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  SPRING 32 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  SUMMER          ....       80 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  AUTUMN         .         .         .         .126 

CHAPTER  V 
THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  WINTER          .         .         .         .161 

CHAPTER  VI 
THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  WINTER  (Continued)        .         .193 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  MILKY  WAY — MAGELLANIC  CLOUDS — ZODIACAL 
LIGHT — AURORA  BOREALIS — GREEN  AND  WHITE 
NEBULA — DOUBLE  AND  MULTIPLE  STARS — 
VARIABLE  STARS — TEMPORARY  STARS  .  .217 

vii 


viii  Contents 


CHAPTER  VIII 

STELLAR     DISTANCES — SPECTRUM     ANALYSIS    AND 
CELESTIAL  PHOTOGRAPHY 244 


PART  II 
THE  SUN  AND  THE  PLANETS 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  PLANETESIMAL  HYPOTHESIS,  AND  OTHERS       .     259 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  LOCAL  SOLAR  SYSTEM  (A  Synopsis)        .         .     265 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  SUN 284 

V  CHAPTER  IV 

MERCURY  AND  VENUS  .....     297 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  EARTH,  THE  TIDES,  AND  TIME       .         .         .     309 
CHAPTER  VI 

THE  MOON 332 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ECLIPSES ,     355 

CHAPTER  VIII 
MARS  AND  THE  PLANETOIDS          .         •  ^      •         •     366 

CHAPTER  IX 
JUPITER  AND  SATURN   .  .         .         .         .     380 


Contents  ix 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  X 

URANUS  AND  NEPTUNE 396 

CHAPTER  XI 

COMETS  AND  METEORS 402 

INDEX 419 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PLATES 

PLATE  FACING  PAGE 

I     ORION  AND  THE  BULL          .     Frontispiece 
From  Atlas  Celeste  de  Flamsteed,  Second  Edi- 
tion, A.D.  1776 

II    THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  OF  CHEOPS          .       16 

III  THE    LONG    SLANT    PASSAGE   OF   THE 

GREAT  PYRAMID  ....       28 

IV  THE  OWL  NEBULA  IN  URSA  MAJOR       .       68 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Mount  Wilson 
Solar  Observatory,  February  9,  1910. 

V    THE  GREAT  SPIRAL  NEBULA  IN  CANES 

VENATICI 68 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Ritchey, 
at  Yerkes  Observatory,  June  3,  1902. 

VI    PHAETHON   DRIVING  THE  CHARIOT  OF 

THE  SUN 90 

From  a  bronze  in  possession  of  the  author. 

VII    THE  RING  NEBULA  IN  LYRA         .         .104 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Mount  Wilson 
Solar  Observatory,  July  i,  1910. 

VIII    THE  DUMB-BELL  NEBULA  IN  VULPECULA     104 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Mount  Wilson 
Solar  Observatory,  July  6  and  7,  1910. 


xn 


Illustrations 


PLATE  FACING  PAGB 

IX    STAR-CLOUD    AND    BLACK    HOLES    IN 

SAGITTARIUS         .         .         .         .114 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Barnard, 
at  Yerkes  Observatory,  July  31,  1905. 

X    THE  STAR-CLUSTER  IN  HERCULES          .     120 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Ritchey, 
with  the  4O-inch  refractor,  at  Yerkes  Ob- 
servatory, April  25,  1901. 

XI    THE  LACE  NEBULA  IN  CYGNUS     .         .120 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Mount  Wilson 
Solar  Observatory,  July,  1910. 

XII    THE    NORTH    AMERICA    NEBULA    IN 

CYGNUS      .....     124 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Barnard,  with 
the  Bruce  telescope,  September  4,  1905. 

XIII  THE  DOUBLE  CLUSTER  IN  PERSEUS       .     148 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Barnard,  with 
the  Bruce  telescope,  September  15,  1904. 

XIV  THE  CRAB  NEBULA  IN  TAURUS    .         .148 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Mount  Wilson 
Solar  Observatory,  October  13,  1909. 

XV    THE  GREAT  NEBULA  IN  ANDROMEDA     .     156 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Ritchey, 
at  Yerkes  Observatory,  September  18, 1901. 

XVI    THE  LITTLE  DIPPER  OF  THE  PLEIADES  .     174 

From  a  photograph  of  the  Pleiades  taken  at 
Arequipa,  Peru,  the  South  American  Station 
of  Harvard  College  Observatory,  November 
28,  1896. 

XVII    THE  NEBULOSITIES  OF  THE  PLEIADES    .     176 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Barnard,  at 
Yerkes  Observatory,  October  19,  1901. 


Illustrations 


X1U 


PLATE 

XVIII 


XIX 


XX 


XXI 


XXII 


XXIII 


XXIV 


XXV 


XXVI 


FACING  PAGE 

THE  GREAT  NEBULA  IN  ORION     .         .190 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Mount  Wilson 
Solar  Observatory,  September  16,  1909. 

THE  THREE  COLUMNS  OF  THE  TEMPLE 

OF  CASTOR  AND  POLLUX  AT  ROME  .     216 

THE  SOLAR  DISK,  SHOWING   CALCIUM 

FLOCCULI 284 

From  a  photograph  taken  at  Yerkes  Observ- 
atory, August  12,  1903. 

THE  GREAT  SUN-SPOT  OF  JULY  17,  1905    288 

From  a  direct  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Fox 
at  Yerkes  Observatory. 

Two  VIEWS  OF  A  LARGE  SOLAR  PROMI- 
NENCE          290 

From  photographs  taken  ten  minutes  apart, 
by  Mr.  Slocum,  at  Yerkes  Observatory, 
October  10,  1910. 

THE  TOTAL  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  SUN,  WITH 

CORONA,  OF  MAY  28,  1900  .         .     294 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Hill 
at  Barnesville,  Ga. 

THE  MOON  AT  NINE  DAYS  .         .         .     332 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  P.  Puisseux,  at 
the  Paris  Observatory,  February,  1900. 

THE  FULL  MOON        ....     334 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  Loewy  and  Puis- 
seux, at  the  Paris  Observatory,  September, 
1898. 

THE  MOON  AT  NINETEEN  DAYS    .         .     336 

From  a  photograph  taken  by  P.  Puisseux,  at 
the  Paris  Observatory,  September,  1903. 


xvi  Illustrations 

PAGE 

DIAGRAMS 

FIG.  i.    THE  BARRITT-SERVISS  STAR  AND  PLANET 

FINDER 36 

"   2.    THE  MEASUREMENT  OF  THE  MOON'S  DIS- 
TANCE   246 

"  3.  THE  MEASUREMENT  OF  THE  SUN'S  DISTANCE    248 

"  4.  THE  DISPERSION  OF  LIGHT  BY  THE  PRISM    .     252 

"  5.  THE  ORBITS  OF  THE  TERRESTRIAL  PLANETS    266 

"  6.  THE  ORBITS  OF  THE  MAJOR  PLANETS  .     267 

41  7.  THE  DIFFERENT  PHASES  OF  VENUS     .         .271 

CHARTS 

CHART  FACING  PAGE 

I  THE  SPRING  NIGHT-SKY  ....      32 

II  THE  SUMMER  NIGHT-SKY  ....      80 

III  THE  AUTUMN  NIGHT-SKY  ....     126 

IV  THE  WINTER  NIGHT-SKY  ,        .        .        .162 


SOME  AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED 

The  Sun C.  G.  ABBOT 

Star-Names  and  Their  Meanings       .         .          .  R.  H.  ALLEN 

Through  the  Telescope      ......      JAMES  BAIKIE 

Popular  Guide  to  the  Heavens  ....  SIR  ROBERT  S.  BALL 

The  Birth  of  Worlds  and  Systems      .         .  A.  W.  BICKERTON 

Astronomy  for  All  .         .         .         .         .         .         .     B.  H.  BRUGEL 

Geography  of  the  Heavens  ) 

and  Celestial  Atlas         ]       '  .         .         .    E.  H.  BURRITT 

Astronomy     .......          G.  F.  CHAMBERS 

The  System  of  the  Stars  .....       AGNES  M.  CLERKE 

Astronomy  of  To-day       .         .         .         .         .         .  C.  G.  DOLMAGE 

The  Night-Skies  of  a  Year J.  H.  ELGIE 

The  Stellar  Heavens         .          .          .          .          .          .          J.  E.  GORE 

The  Growth  of  a  Planet  .         .         .         .         .         .         E.  S.  GREW 

The  Myths  of  Greece  and  Rome         .         .         .         .  H.  A.  GUERBER 

A  Study  in  Stellar  Evolution    .         .         .         .         .          G.  E.  HALE 

Astronomy     ........  H.  JACOB Y 

Astronomy  of  the  Ancients       .         .         .  SIR  GEORGE  C.  LEWIS 

The  Evolution  of  Worlds  ) 

Mars  and  Its  Canals        ]       '         '  PERCIVAL  LOWELL 

A  Beginner's  Star-Book  .         .         .          .      KELVIN  McKREADY 

The  Friendly  Stars  ) 

The  Ways  of  the  Planets  \       '  '       MARTHA  EVANS  MARTIN 

The  Romance  of  Modern  Astronomy          .         .    H.  MACPHERSON,  JR. 
The  Astronomy  of  the  Bible     .         .         .         .  E.  W.  MAUNDER 

Descriptive  Astronomy    .          .         .          .          .          .    F.  R.  MOULTON 

The  Spectroscope  and  Its  Work         .          .          .  H.  F.  NEW  ALL 

Astronomy  for  Everybody         ....      SIMON  F.  NEWCOMB 

Star  Lore  of  All  Ages  ) 

In  Starland  with  a  Three-Inch  Telescope  ) 

The  Moon W.  H.  PICKERING 

The  Solar  System C.  L.  POOR 

The  Stars  in  Song  and  Legend          .         .          .  J.  G.  PORTER 

Half-hours  with  the  Summer  Stars  ....     MARY  PROCTOR 
Half -hours  with  the  Stars  ) 
A  New  Star  Atlas  \     •  •  RICHARD  PROCTOR 

xvii 


xviii         Some  Authorities  Consulted 


How  to  Study  the  Stars L.  RUDAUX 

Researches  on  the  Evolution  of  the  Stellar  System        .  T.  J.  J.  SEE 

Astronomy  with  the  Naked  Eye  ^ 

Astronomy  in  a  Nutshell 

Curiosities  of  the  Skies  f  •  .        G.  P.  SERVISS 

Round  the  Year  with  the  Stars    J 

New  Astronomy    ..."...  D.  P.  TODD 

Manual  of  Astronomy CHARLES  A.  YOUNG 

The  Monthly  Evening  Sky  Map 
Popular  Astronomy 
The  Observatory 


The  Gall  of  the  Stars 


Part  I 

The  Stars 


CHAPTER  I 
x. 

GENERAL  REMARKS 

The  sad  and  solemn  night 

Hath  yet  her  multitude  of  cheerful  fires; 
The  glorious  host  of  light 

Walk  the  dark  hemisphere  till  she  retires; 
All  through  her  silent  watches,  gliding  slow, 

Her  constellations  come,  and  climb  the  heavens,  and  go. 

BRYANT. 

ON  almost  any  moonless  night  when  the  sky  is  per- 
fectly clear,  and  the  soft  shades  of  twilight  have  van- 
ished, a  most  enjoyable  half -hour  or  hour  may  be  spent 
in  gazing  upon  the  immense  deep  blue  expanse  above, 
bedecked  with  roving  planets  and  scintillating  stars. 
The  beautiful  constellations — strange  groupings  of  the 
brighter  stars,  handed  down  from  the  antiquity  of  the 
ages — are  always  present  in  God's  great  outdoors, 
and  are  ever  changing  as  the  months  go  by,  constituting 
a  scene  of  marvellous  and  impressive  splendour,  and 
at  the  same  time  affording  an  unfailing  field  for  study, 
of  the  highest  interest  and  utility. 

Besides  the  stars  themselves,  a  most  conspicuous 
object,  varying  approximately  from  five  to  forty  degrees 
in  width,  is  that  wonderful  belt  of  faintly  diffused  light 
termed  the  Galaxy  or  Milky  Way,  which,  with  its  rifts 
and  chasms,  stretches  like  a  magnificent  arch  across 
the  constellated  sky,  and  forms  the  equatorial  zone  of 

3 


4  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  vast  spherical  or  spheroidal  universe  of  stars. 
Milton  in  his  Paradise  Lost — the  loftiest  intellectual 
effort  in  the  whole  range  of  literature — aptly  refers  to 
it  as: 

A  broad  and  ample  road  whose  dust  is  gold 
And  pavement  stars. 

Then,  too,  the  myriads  of  nebulae  and  star  clusters  in 
every  stage  of  evolution  and  the  many  so-called  vari- 
able stars,  some  of  which  can  be  seen  with  the  naked 
eye,  are  all  most  interesting  objects  to  the  observer 
who  is  so  fortunate  as  to  possess  a  small  telescope — the 
ideal  instrument  for  the  amateur  being  a  three-inch  or 
a  five-inch,  equatorially  mounted,  and  provided  with 
eyepieces  of  proper  powers. 

Many  stellar  wonders,  it  is  well  known,  are  revealed 
by  even  a  large  opera-glass  magnifying  about  three  or 
four  diameters,  and  still  more  by  a  prism  binocular 
field-glass  with  a  magnifying  power  of  seven  or  ten  or 
fifteen  diameters.  An  opera-glass  will  show  up  fifth- 
or  sixth-magnitude  stars  quite  plainly,  and  will  also 
bring  into  vision  about  ten  times  as  many  stars  as  the 
unaided  eye  can  see.  A  small  telescope  will  show 
stars  down  to  the  ninth  magnitude,  and  with  the  very 
best  telescope  the  limit  of  vision  is  reached  at  about 
the  sixteenth  or  the  seventeenth  magnitude,  while  stars 
from  the  eighteenth  down  to  the  twentieth  magnitude 
are  recognisable  only  by  means  of  the  photographic 
plate. 

None  of  the  stars  present  any  sensible  disk  or  surface 
image,  even  in  the  most  powerful  telescopes.  They 
all  appear  as  mere  luminous  points,  a  little  more  or  a 
little  less  radiant,  and  are  never  seen  to  set,  as  owing  to 
the  terrestrial  atmosphere  they  cease  to  be  visible 


General  Remarks  5 

before  they  reach  the  horizon.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact 
that  a  fixed  star  seems  smaller,  though  brighter,  in  a 
good  telescope  than  when  seen  with  the  naked  eye,  as 
the  irradiation  which  causes  it  to  appear  larger  to  the 
naked  eye  vanishes  in  the  telescope. 

The  twinkling  Or  scintillation  of  a  star,  a  phenomenon 
over  which  poets  in  all  periods  of  the  world's  history 
have  rhapsodised,  and  of  which  children  have  been 
made  familiar  by  the  old  nursery  rhyme 

Twinkle,  twinkle,  little  star, 

is  due  to  aerial  disturbances  by  which  the  progress  of 
light  is  interfered  with.  The  white  stellar  light,  which 
consists  of  all  the  rainbow  colours,  is  broken  up  into 
its  elementary  colours  in  passing  through  the  restless 
terrestrial  atmosphere.  Proportionate  to  the  aerial 
density  and  motion,  now  one  colour  prevails  over  the 
rest,  and  now  another,  so  that  the  star  appears  to  alter 
its  colour  and  brightness  incessantly.  The  scintilla- 
tion is  especially  noticeable  on  clear  wintry  nights, 
being  most  pronounced  in  January  and  February,  and 
has  been  observed  to  increase  during  the  time  of  twi- 
light. It  is  always  large  near  the  horizon,  and  is  apt 
to  be  quite  marked  if  a  change  of  weather  is  imminent. 
Yellow  and  red  stars  seem  to  twinkle  the  most,  white 
stars  the  least. 

According  to  their  radiance,  rather  than  to  their 
real  size,  stellar  photometry  arbitrarily  divides  the 
stars  visible  to  the  naked  eye  into  six  magnitudes,  each 
magnitude  being  approximately  two  and  a  half  times 
brighter  than  the  next  below  it  in  rank.  Then,  too, 
each  magnitude  has  been  found  to  be  about  three  times 
more  numerous  than  the  one  which  precedes  it.  About 
twenty  of  the  very  brightest  stars  in  the  sky,  notwith- 


6  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

standing  they  show  great  inequality,  are  called  first- 
magnitude  stars,  the  star  Aldebaran  being  generally 
taken  as  the  standard  of  brightness.  About  sixty- 
five,  not  quite  so  bright,  are  of  the  second  magnitude, 
nearly  two  hundred  of  the  third,  over  four  hundred  of 
the  fourth,  about  eleven  hundred  of  the  fifth,  and  over 
three  thousand  of  the  sixth  magnitude.  The  total 
number  of  stars,  therefore,  that  can  be  seen  without 
optical  aid,  is  about  five  thousand,  distributed  nearly 
equally  between  the  northern  and  the  southern  skies. 
Not  more  than  about  two  thousand  of  these  are  visible 
at  any  one  time  to  the  unaided  eye. 

The  stars,  however,  that  can  be  seen  with  the  naked 
eye  are  only  the  merest  handful,  compared  with  the 
vast  number  of  stars  in  the  entire  stellar  system.  It  is 
said  that  the  great  photographic  chart  and  catalogue 
of  the  heavens,1  work  on  which  has  extended  over 
many  years,  will  show  about  forty  million  stars,  and 
will  include  all  down  to  the  fourteenth  magnitude. 
Nearly  one  and  a  quarter  million  of  the  brightest  of 
these  will  be  catalogued.  Some  astronomers,  who  have 
attempted  to  estimate  the  number  of  the  starry  host, 
declare  that  if  all  the  stars  could  be  counted,  they  would 
exceed  one  hundred  million.  But  plainly,  considering 
the  endlessness  of  space,  it  is  most  probable  that  even 
this  liberal  estimate  falls  far  short  of  the  myriads  that 
actually  exist.  Bickerton  has  recently  expressed  the 
opinion  that  there  are  at  least  a  thousand  million  suns, 
vivid  and  dead,  in  the  entire  universe.  And  again, 
for  all  that  beings  on  this  earth  can  tell,  every  star  may 

'The  International  Photographic  Survey  of  the  Heavens  was  in- 
augurated in  April,  1887,  at  a  conference  of  astronomers,  representing 
sixteen  different  nationalities,  which  met  in  Paris,  on  the  invitation 
of  M.  1'Amiral  Mouchez,  a  late  director  of  the  Paris  Observatory. 


General  Remarks  7 

be  the  mighty  ruler  of  a  system  of  bodies  revolving 
round  it,  similar  to  that  revolving  round  the  sun, 
itself  a  star. 

The  old  Bible  words,  "Look  now  toward  heaven 
and  tell  the  stars,  if  thou  be  able  to  number  them," 
bear  forcible  witness  to  their  vast  multitude.  Their 
actual  number  is  known  only  to  Him  who  "telleth  the 
number  of  the  stars'*  and  "calleth  them  all  by  name." 

Though  we  too  call  the  stars,  they  answer  not; 

They  do  not  softly  come  like  children  shy 
At  a  fond  parent's  calling,  I  wot, 

We  do  not  know  what  names  God  calls  them  by. 

For  the  amateur  star-gazer,  particular  interest  will 
attach  to  perhaps  not  over  three  hundred  easily  to  be 
distinguished  stars,  arranged  in  interesting  star-groups, 
and  comprising  all  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  magni- 
tude stars,  and  a  few  of  the  fourth. 

Naked-eye  stars,  or  as  they  are  sometimes  termed 
"lucid  stars,"  are  distributed  over  the  entire  sky  with 
considerable  uniformity,  but  telescopic  stars — those 
which  are  invisible  without  telescopic  aid — are  most 
thickly  crowded  in  the  Milky  Way. 

The  names  and  colours  of  the  twenty  brightest  stars, 
with  their  magnitudes,  in  the  order  of  their  brightness, 
according  to  the  Revised  Harvard  Photometry,  1908, 
are  as  follows: 

Sirius  (bluish  white) —  1 .6 

Canopus  (bluish  white) —0.9 

Alpha  Centauri  (white)         .               ....  o.i 

Vega  (pale  sapphire) O.I 

Capella  (creamy  white)         .        .       .        ...  0.2 

Arcturus  (orange)           .        .        .        .        »     •"*        .  0.2 

Rigel  (bluish  white)       .       .       .       ;i;      .       .       .  0.3 


8  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Procyon  (yellowish  white)          ,        .        .        .  0.5 

Achernar  (white)          .:       .        .    .     .      'f.        .  0.6 

Beta  Centauri  (white) 0.9 

Altair  (yellowish  white)      .        .        .        .        .  0.9 

f  ,,  (  0.9  max. 

Betelgeux  (orange  red)  .      -j  ^      ^^ 

Alpha  Crucis  (bluish  white)        .        .        .  i.i 

Aldebaran  (light  rose) i.i 

Spica  (silvery  white) 1.2 

Pollux  (orange) 1.2 

Antares  (bright  red)     ......  1.2 

Fomalhaut  (reddish)    ......  1.3 

Deneb  (white)       .  1.3 

Regulus  (white) 1.3 

Three  of  these  brilliant  stars — Capella,  Altair,  and 
Deneb  or  Alpha  Cygni — are  situated  very  close  to  the 
Milky  Way.  Four  others — Vega,  Procyon,  Betelgeux, 
and  Aldebaran — are  located  upon  its  immediate  border. 
Five — Canopus,  Alpha  Centauri,  Beta  Centauri, 
Alpha  Crucis,  and  Achernar — are  so  far  south  that 
they  cannot  be  seen  in  this  latitude,  but  can  be  seen  in 
the  latitude  of  Cuba.  Canopus  and  Achernar,  which 
are  a  little  farther  north  than  the  others,  can  be  seen 
in  some  parts  of  Florida  and  Texas. 

The  stellar  magnitude  of  the  sun,  which  gives  ten 
thousand  million  times  the  light  of  Sirius,  is  estimated 
at  about  —26.5.  It  has  been  calculated  that  on  a  clear 
night  the  total  starlight  from  the  entire  celestial  sphere 
amounts  to  about  one-sixtieth  of  the  light  of  the  full 
moon.  And  yet  according  to  recent  statistical  research, 
based  on  the  new  chart  of  the  heavens,  it  is  said,  that 
ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  stars  visible  through  a  fair- 
sized  telescope,  are  in  actual  luminosity  greater  than 
the  sun. 


General  Remarks  9 

Of  all  the  stars  strewn  through  space,  there  are  but 
seventy  odd  whose  actual  distances  have  been  measured, 
the  others  being  so  remote  that  no  parallax  can  be  found 
for  them.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  as  a  result  of 
the  investigations  now  in  progress,  the  distances  of 
most  of  the  naked-eye  stars  will  be  ascertained  ere 
many  years  have  elapsed.  The  distances,  where  known, 
are  usually  expressed  not  in  miles,  but  in  what  is 
termed  "light  years,"  astronomers  having  adopted  as 
the  unit  of  stellar  distance  that  celestial  yardstick  the 
"light  year" — the  space  travelled  by  a  ray  of  light  in 
a  year,  while  moving  at  the  rate  of  186,400  miles  a 
second — a  speed  identical  with  the  measured  speed  of 
electricity.  This  amounts  roughly  to  about  six  million 
million  miles. 

The  average  distance  from  the  earth  of  first-magni- 
tude stars  is  about  thirty-three  light  years,  that  of 
second  magnitude  stars,  fifty-two  light  years,  and  that 
of  third  magnitude  stars,  about  eighty-two  light  years. 

At  the  present  time,  so  far  as  is  known,  the  brilliant 
star  Alpha  Centauri,  visible  only  in  southern  latitudes, 
is  the  nearest  of  the  stars.  Careful  calculations  have 
fixed  its  distance  at  4!  light  years,  or  about  twenty- 
five  million  million  miles.  A  good  idea  of  this  great 
distance  may  be  had  by  regarding  the  distance  from 
the  earth  to  the  sun,  which  averages  92,820,000  miles, 
(107^  times  the  sun's  diameter)  as  one  foot,  then  Alpha 
Centauri  would  be,  on  the  same  scale,  over  fifty  miles 
away.  Sound,  which  is  a  rather  fast  traveller,  but  is 
dependent  on  the  atmosphere  for  its  motion,  would,  if 
it  were  possible  for  it  to  travel  through  space  from 
this  nearest  fixed  star,  spend  at  its  rate  of  speed — noo 
feet  a  second — over  three  million  years  on  the  journey. 

The  average  distance  of    Lalande  21185,  an  incon- 


io  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

spicuous  telescopic  star  of  about  the  seventh  magnitude, 
in  the  constellation  of  the  Great  Bear,  and  the  nearest 
star  in  the  northern  skies,  is,  as  estimated  by  different 
authorities,  eight  light  years,  or  over  505,000  times  that 
of  the  sun  from  the  earth. 

The  radiant  bluish-white  star  Sirius,  the  nearest 
of  the  bright  stars  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  and  by 
far  the  most  brilliant  star  in  the  whole  sky,  though  by 
no  means  the  biggest  of  the  stars,  is  8f  light  years 
distant,  or  about  fifty-two  million  million  miles. 

The  fourth-magnitude  star  Tau,  in  Cetus,  the  Whale, 
is  estimated  to  be  9^  light  years  distant. 

The  brilliant  Procyon,  a  yellowish- white  star,  and 
one  of  the  most  interesting  in  the  entire  heavens,  is 
about  ten  light  years  away. 

6 1  Cygni,  a  relatively  little  star  of  the  fifth  and  a  half 
magnitude,  in  the  constellation  of  the  Swan,  is,  accord- 
ing to  latest  measurements  io|  light  years  distant.  It 
was  the  first  star  whose  distance  was  measured,  and 
until  quite  recently  was  supposed  to  be  only  6\  light 
years  away. 

The  brightest  star  in  the  southern  skies,  second  to 
Sirius  out  of  the  entire  sky,  is  a  bluish-white  star  known 
as  Canopus.  It  is  so  far  off,  however,  that  its  distance 
cannot  be  ascertained.  Roughly,  it  has  been  estimated 
at  not  less  than  325  light  years  away. 

The  reddish  star  Fomalhaut,  the  farthest  south  of 
all  the  first  magnitude  stars  visible  in  this  latitude,  is 
23?  light  years  distant. 

The  beautiful  bluish-white  star  Vega,  called  the 
arc-light  of  the  heavens,  a  star  a  hundred  times  greater 
than  the  sun,  and  which  about  fourteen  thousand  years 
ago  was  the  north  polar-star,  is  thirty-five  light  years 
away. 


General  Remarks  n 

The  slightly  greenish-white  star  Castor,  one  of  the 
Heavenly  Twins,  and  the  finest  double  star  in  the 
northern  heavens,  is  nearly  116  light  years  distant, 
while  his  immortal  brother  Pollux  is  about  fifty-one. 

The  magnificent  orange-tinted  star,  the  flying 
Arcturus,  one  of  the  grandest  orbs  in  the  sky,  is  43! 
light  years  distant. 

A  creamy- white  star,  the  merry  Capella, — the  "star 
of  stars," — with  an  estimated  diameter  of  about  fourteen 
million  miles,  is  about  forty-nine  light  years  distant. 

The  rosy  Aldebaran,  one  of  the  four  Royal  stars  of 
astrology — the  others  being  Regulus,  Antares,  and 
Fomalhaut — is  about  forty-four  light  years  away. 

The  silvery  Rigel,  and  the  variable,  ruddy  Betelgeux, 
leading  stars  in  spectacular  Orion,  the  most  magnificent 
of  all  the  constellations  and  one  of  the  few  visible  from 
all  parts  of  the  earth,  are  so  far  off  that  astronomers 
have  not  been  able  to  measure  their  distances. 

The  most  famous  star-cluster  in  the  heavens,  the 
twinkling  Pleiades,  sometimes  called  the  "Seven 
Sisters,"  referred  to  in  the  great  drama  of  Job  (which 
is  believed  to  be  one  of  the  oldest  books  in  existence), 
and  admirably  pictured  in  Tennyson's  Locksley  Hall: 

Many  a  night  I  saw  the  Pleiads,  rising  through  the  mellow 

shade, 
Glitter  like  a  swarm  of  fire-flies  tangled  in  a  silver  braid 

is,  according  to  some  estimates,  about  250  light  years 
distant.  While  that  "lighthouse  in  the  sky,"  Polaris 
the  pole  star,  a  star  about  the  size  of  the  sun,  and  which 
consists  of  three  suns  revolving  about  a  common  centre, 
shines  by  light  which  left  it  nearly  seventy  years  ago. 
Then  again,  the  smallest  telescopic  stars,  such  as  are 


12  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

seen  in  that  most  wonderful  feature  of  the  sky,  the 
Milky  Way,  are  believed  to  be  from  ten  to  twenty 
thousand  years  of  light  away.  All  astronomical 
measurements,  however,  fail  here,  as  stars  that  are 
more  than  sixty  light  years  distant  are  to-day  practi- 
cally beyond  the  limits  of  exact  measurement. 

How  distant  some  of  the  nocturnal  Suns ! 
So  distant,  says  the  Sage,  'twere  not  absurd 
To  doubt,  if  beams  set  out  at  Nature's  birth, 
Are  yet  arrived  at  this  so  foreign  world : 
Though  nothing  half  so  rapid  as  their  flight. 

YOUNG,  Night  Thoughts. 

To  the  ordinary  beholder  one  star  seems  very  much 
like  another,  and  yet  far  from  being  merely  the  twin- 
kling tiny  dots  of  light  they  seem  to  be,  the  silent  stars 
are  suns  with  retinues  unseen,  shining  by  their  own 
inherent  light,  many  of  them  gigantic  suns,  so  very 
distant  that  they  appear,  not  as  at  the  moment  of 
observation,  but  as  they  did  years  ago.  The  light 
seen  is  the  "ancient"  light  that  left  their  surface  from 
a  few  to  scores  or  even  thousands  of  years  back  in  the 
past.  Some  of  the  stars  may  even  have  ceased  to  exist, 
but  as  the  last  rays  they  sent  out  have  not  yet  reached 
this  planet,  it  may  not  be  known  for  years  or  even 
centuries  that  a  star  had  become  extinct. 

Were  a  star  quenched  on  high 

For  ages  would  its  light, 
Still  travelling  downward  from  the  sky, 

Shine  on  our  mortal  sight. 

LONGFELLOW. 

It  will  be  noticed  by  the  observer  that  the  stars, 
"the  eternal  jewels  of  the  short-lived  night,"  as  Mary 


General  Remarks  13 

Mapes  Dodge  in  The  Stars  calls  them,  have  individual 
colours,  and  that  the  colours  are  nearly  all  faint  shades. 
Some  of  the  brighter  stars  are  a  brilliant  white  with  a 
steely  glitter,  like  Sirius.  Not  a  few  are  golden  yellow, 
like  Capella  and  the  sun,  while  stars  of  a  reddish  tone, 
which  ranges  from  the  merest  shade  up  to  a  fairly  deep 
orange,  are  not  uncommon.  Still  others  have  tints  of 
the  ruby,  the  emerald,  the  topaz,  the  garnet,  and  even 
the  sapphire.  Dr.  Warren,  in  referring  to  coloured 
stars  beautifully  writes:  "We  are  charmed  with  the 
variegated  flowers  of  our  gardens  of  earth,  but  He  who 
makes  the  fields  blush  with  flowers  under  the  warm 
kisses  of  the  sun,  has  planted  his  wider  garden  of  space 
with  coloured  stars.  The  rainbow  flowers  of  the  foot- 
stool, and  the  starry  flowers  of  the  throne,  proclaim  one 
being  as  the  author  of  them  all."  Recalling  Pierre 
de  Coulevain's  lines  in  The  Heart  of  Life,  everywhere 
throughout  the  Universe,  everything  is  linked  together, 
and,  as  Francis  Thompson,  the  English  philosopher- 
poet,  aptly  puts  it : 

Thou  canst  not  stir  a  flower 
Without  troubling  a  star. 

Among  conspicuous  stars  Antares  in  the  heart  of  the 
Scorpion  is  the  ruddiest,  and  Betelgeux  in  the  right 
shoulder  of  Orion  comes  next.  Some  of  the  first-magni- 
tude stars,  such  as  Arcturus  and  others,  will  be  found  to 
have  distinct  orange  tones.  So  peculiarly  favoured  by 
red  and  orange  stars  is  that  portion  of  the  heavens 
between  Aquila,  Lyra,  and  Cygnus  that  it  has  not  in- 
aptly been  styled  the  Red  Region,  or  the  Red  Region 
of  Cygnus.  White  and  yellow  and  orange-red  are 
about  the  only  star  colours  that  are  distinguishable 
with  the  naked  eye.  When  seen  through  the  telescope 


14  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

some  of  the  fainter  stars  seem  deep  red  in  colour,  while 
others  are  of  a  delicate  bluish  or  greenish  cast.  Marked 
influence  upon  the  colour  and  appearance  of  the  stars, 
it  may  be  noted,  is  exerted  by  the  condition  of  the 
atmosphere.  Bright  stars  seem  most  brilliant  when 
near  the  horizon,  while  faint  stars  are  best  seen  near 
the  zenith — the  point  exactly  over  the  observer's  head. 

It  has  been  observed  that  a  blue  or  a  green  star  is 
never  found  alone,  but  usually  in  company  with  a  red 
or  an  orange  star,  and  that  bright  white  stars  often  have 
small  blue  ones  in  their  vicinity.  The  finest  examples 
of  blue  or  green  stars  are  found  in  the  smaller  members 
of  some  of  the  double  systems.  In  the  case  of  the 
double  star  Albireo,  in  the  foot  of  the  northern  cross 
in  constellation  Cygnus,  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
objects  within  the  range  of  small  telescopes  in  the  north- 
ern sky,  the  larger  star  is  orange-yellow,  and  the  smaller 
one  is  greenish-blue.  Sometimes  a  small  cluster  of 
stars  will  display  all  sorts  of  colours.  The  contrast 
of  a  red  and  a  white  star  in  the  same  field  is  not  infre- 
quently a  most  vivid  and  never-to-be-forgotten  sight. 
Then,  too,  how  wondrous  must  be  the  colouring  observed 
by  the  planet-beings,  if  such  exist,  in  any  one  of  the 
not  improbable  planets  revolving  round  such  glorious 
suns!  How  grand  the  fairy  spectacle  in  those  belong- 
ing to  the  compound  systems,  one  sun  setting  it  may  be 
in  golden  yellow,  or  in  purest  green,  and  another  rising 
in  amethyst  blue  or  in  richest  purple!  Moreover, 
fancy  can  sketch  better  than  words  can  describe,  or 
an  artist  portray,  the  richness,  beauty,  and  variety, 
of  the  hues  presented,  when  such  charmingly  coloured 
suns,  mingling  their  flashing  rays,  happen  together  in 
the  sky. 

From  the  infantile  nebula,  to  the  star  dying  of  old 


General  Remarks  15 

age,  it  will  be  found  that  such  as  are  of  the  same  colour 
are  about  of  the  same  age,  and  have  much  the  same 
composition.  Nebulas  that  are  entirely  in  a  gaseous 
condition  are  of  a  greenish  tint,  while  such  as  are 
composed  of  partially-cooled  matter,  like  the  spiral 
nebulae,  are  white  in  colour.  White  and  bluish-white 
stars,  such  as  Sirius,  Rigel,  Spica,  and  Vega,  are  young 
in  the  order  of  evolution,  and  are  at  full  glow.  In  the 
course  of  time,  as  they  reach  their  hottest  stage,  they 
turn  golden-yellow  like  Capella,  Pollux,  and  the  sun, 
and  again  as  they  get  older,  become  ruddy  or  red,  and 
are  often  variable,  as  in  the  cases  of  Betelgeux,  Alde- 
baran,  and  Antares.  Finally,  as  the  ages  pass,  their 
light  dies  away,  and  they  become  dark,  opaque  bodies 
— extinct  and  dead  suns  rushing  unseen  on  their  unlit 
ways.  It  has  been  roughly  estimated  that  the  extinct 
stars  or  suns  outnumber  the  lucent  ones,  one  hundred 
to  one.  Verily,  the  universe  is  one  vast  cemetery  of 
dead  suns  and  systems  of  worlds.  The  process  of  crea- 
tion or  of  evolution  of  matter  is,  however,  continuously 
going  on,  suns  and  star  systems  are  ever  being  evolved, 
and  as  Flammarion  puts  it,  "in  space  there  are  both 
cradles  and  tombs/* 

About  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  brighter  stars  are 
white  or  bluish- white  (sirian  stars),  twenty- three  per 
cent,  are  yellowish  (solar  stars),  about  one  per  cent,  are 
orange-red,  and  one  per  cent,  blood-red.  Helium, 
which  is  one  of  the  products  of  radio-active  elements, 
is  present  in  the  bluish-white  stars,  and  to  it  they  owe 
their  supreme  brilliance,  while  hydrogen  appears 
extensively  in  the  luminous  white  stars.  Carbon, 
magnesium,  iron,  and  other  metals  are  present  in  the 
solar  or  yellow  stars,  and  carbon  compounds  in  the 
redder  stars.  Recently,  it  has  been  found,  that  under 


16  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

suitable  conditions,  the  gases  helium  and  neon  may  be 
produced  by  passing  an  electric  discharge  through 
hydrogen. 

All  the  stars  are  popularly  called  " fixed"  stars,  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  planets  or  " wandering" 
stars,  which  are  always  shifting  their  positions  in  the 
heavens.  The  name  was  given  them  by  the  ancients, 
the  old  idea  being  that  the  stars  were  "fastened  like 
nails  to  the  surface  of  the  sky,"  and  therefore  were 
absolutely  fixed  and  motionless,  unchangeable,  eternal. 
Careful  observations  have  shown  that  not  only  are 
they  not  "fixed"  but  that  they  whirl  through  space  in 
all  directions,  with  a  velocity  far  greater  than  the 
swiftest  of  the  planets,1  and  further  that  far  from 
being  unchangeable  and  eternal,  they  have  had  their 
beginning,  and  will  at  some  indeterminately  remote  age 
reach  their  end. 

Flowers  of  the  sky !  ye  too,  to  age  must  yield, 
Frail  as  your  silken  sisters  of  the  field. 

ERASMUS  DARWIN. 

Yet  so  distant  are  they,  that,  as  nearly  as  the  unaided 
eye  can  judge,  they  remain  in  the  same  relative  posi- 
tions from  age  to  age.  Hence  the  casual  observer  of 
to-day  sees  them  about  as  the  Egyptians  saw  them  when 
building  their  pyramids  (Plate  II)  long  centuries  ago. 
As  another  has  well  said,  they  watched  the  earth  grow  fit 
for  man  long  before  man  came,  and  they  will  doubtless 
be  shining  on,  after  the  human  race  itself  has  disap- 
peared from  the  surface  of  the  planet. 

1  According  to  recent  spectroscopic  observations  made  at  Lick  Obser- 
vatory, it  has  been  found  that  stars  in  the  early  stages  of  their  existence 
travel  slowly  through  space,  and  that  their  speed  increases  with  their 
development. 


Copyright  by,  Under  wood  and  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

PLATE  II.    The  Great  Pyramid  of  Cheops 

(From  the  south-east) 


General  Remarks  17 

In  passing  it  may  be  remarked  that  quite  often  stars 
which  seem  to  be  neighbours  in  the  sky,  and  to  form 
definite  configurations,  have  no  real  connection  after 
all.  Some  are  many  times  as  far  away  as  others,  and 
they  only  seem  nearer  because  they  are  nearly  in  line 
with  one  another. 

The  actual  motion  of  a  star  over  the  face  of  the  sky, 
that  is  to  say  across  the  line  of  vision,  is  technically 
known  as  ''proper  motion."  A  star  that  is  moving 
directly  towards  or  away  from  the  earth  has  no  proper 
motion,  since  it  does  not  alter  its  position  on  the  face 
of  the  sky.  In  measuring  the  proper  or  cross  motion 
of  a  star,  the  measurement  taken  is  only  of  that  portion 
of  the  motion  which  is  across  the  line  of  vision,  and  can 
be  determined  by  the  telescope.  Motion  which  is  in 
the  direction  of  the  line  of  vision,  technically  called 
"motion  in  the  line  of  sight"-— "radial  velocity" 
(vitesse  radiale) — hitherto  unascertainable  by  micro- 
metrical  measures  with  an  ordinary  telescope,  is  readily 
detected  by  Doppler's  method  of  spectrum  observation. 

The  proper  or  cross  motions  of  over  ten  thousand 
stars  have  been  measured,  the  first  being  made  out  by 
Halley  in  1718,  their  mean  rate  being,  according  to 
Campbell,  twenty-one  miles  a  second.  The  swiftest 
known  star,  a  champion  racer,  is  an  inconspicuous, 
eighth-magnitude  star  in  the  constellation  Pictor  in 
the  southern  hemisphere.  The  next  swiftest  is  a  sixth- 
magnitude  star,  just  about  the  limit  of  ordinary  visi- 
bility, in  the  constellation  of  the  Great  Bear,  known  as 
No.  1830,  in  Groombridge's  catalogue  of  circumpolar 
stars.  Its  speed  is  estimated  to  be  185  miles  a  second, 
or  six  hundred  times  faster  than  a  cannon-ball  flies. 
In  the  course  of  a  century  it  would  move  over  a  space 
equal  to  a  third  of  the  diameter  of  the  full  moon,  and 


1 8  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

in  185,000  years  would  complete  a  circuit  of  the  whole 
sky.  It  is  about  ten  times  as  far  away  as  Alpha  Cen- 
tauri,  and  has  sometimes  been  styled  the  "Runaway 
Star." 

Arcturus  in  the  constellation  Bootes,  the  Bear  Driver, 
which  also  has  a  large  proper  or  cross  motion,  is  travelling 
with  great  rapidity  toward  the  south-south-west,  and 
has  advanced  its  position  a  degree  or  more  since  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  Era. 

The  pace  of  one  of  the  earth's  nearer  neighbours  in 
space,  6 1  Cygni,  is  49 \  miles  a  second,  while  Mu,  a 
fifth-magnitude  star  in  Cassiopeia,  is  rushing  on  at 
the  rate  of  ninety-eight  miles  in  the  same  time. 

The  sun,  itself  a  fixed  star,  carrying  along  with  it 
the  whole  solar  system,  is  advancing  at  the  rapid  rate 
of  thirteen  miles  a  second  towards  the  fourth-magnitude 
star  Delta  in  the  middle  of  the  Harp,  Lyra.  Since 
the  time  of  Adam  the  sun  has,  as  Serviss  states,  led  his 
whole  cortege  of  planets  and  their  satellites  through 
the  wastes  of  space  no  less  than  225,000,000,000  miles. 
Meditating  on  the  star- strewn  heavens,  the  observer 
may  well  exclaim  with  one  of  old: 

When  I  consider  the  heavens,  the  work  of  thy  fingers, 
The  moon  and  the  stars,  which  thou  hast  ordained; 
What  is  man,  that  thou  are  mindful  of  him? 
And  the  son  of  man,  that  thou  visitest  him? 

Psalms  viii.,  3. 

There  are  grounds  for  assuming  that  the  proper  or 
cross  motions  of  some  of  the  stars  have,  in  the  lapse  of 
time,  produced  marked  changes  in  their  brightness,  as 
instanced  by  the  cases  of  Castor  and  Pollux.  In  old 
catalogues  Castor  was  lettered  Alpha  and  Pollux  Beta, 


General  Remarks  19 

but  to-day  Pollux  stands  first,  being  much  the  brighter 
of  the  two. 

Then,  too,  it  has  been  observed  that  in  a  number  of 
instances  proper  or  cross  motions  of  stars  appear  to 
take  place  in  groups — a  phenomenon  known  as  "star- 
drift,"  and  the  stars  as  "migrating  stars."  Many  of 
the  stars  composing  the  well-known  silvery  cluster  the 
Pleiades  appear  to  be  drifting  through  space  in  the 
same  direction,  like  a  flock  of  birds,  a  few  somewhat 
in  advance  of  the  rest.  Four  of  the  stars  forming  the 
W-shaped  figure  in  Cassiopeia,  namely  Beta,  Alpha, 
Delta,  and  Epsilon,  are  moving  in  an  easterly  direction 
and  at  different  speeds,  while  the  fifth  star,  Gamma,  is 
moving  westward.  Beta's  motion  is  apparently  more 
rapid  than  that  of  the  others.  And  further,  five  of  the 
stars  which  make  up  the  striking  figure  of  the  capital 
letter  V  in  the  Hyades,  are  moving  in  a  northerly 
direction,  while  two  others  of  the  cluster  are  moving 
eastward.  Aldebaran,  the  chief  star  of  the  cluster  and 
the  lucida  of  Taurus,  is  apparently  the  most  affected 
by  the  easterly  motion,  jand  will,  as  the  ages  pass, 
inevitably  drift  away  from  its  present  companions. 

The  seven  principal  stars  of  the  beautiful  Northern 
Crown,  which  are  arranged  in  a  semicircle,  and  outline 
a  perfect  crown,  have  movements  in  three  directions 
at  right  angles  to  one  another.  They  must  in  conse- 
quence eventually  drift  apart,  and  in  the  lapse  of  time 
the  beautiful  figure  will  have  dissolved.  Five  of  the 
seven  stars  composing  The  Dipper  are  moving  in  one 
direction,  while  the  other  two — the  star  at  the  end  of 
the  handle  and  that  one  of  the  "pointers"  which  is 
nearer  the  pole  star — are  moving  in  almost  an  opposite 
direction.  They  are  between  ninety  and  one  hundred 
light  years  distant  and  are  travelling  at  about  the  same 


20  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

rate  of  speed,  eighteen  miles  a  second.  Thousands  of 
years  hence,  the  aspect  of  The  Dipper  will  have  com- 
pletely changed ;  the  handle  will  have  become  somewhat 
extended  and  bent,  and  the  bowl  more  or  less  distorted. 
Flammarion  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  fifty  thou- 
sand years  ago,  it  had  the  form  of  the  Swastika  cross, — 
the  oldest  cross  and  symbol  in  the  world, — and  that 
fifty  thousand  years  hence  it  will  resemble  an  exag- 
gerated steamer  chair.  So  too,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  by 
reason  of  the  stars'  proper  or  cross  motion,  the  most 
beautiful  constellation  Orion  will  have  undergone 
marked  alteration  in  the  grouping  of  its  stars.  Event- 
ually it  may  even  become  merged  with  the  constel- 
lations Taurus  and  Canis  Major,  into  one  immense 
star-group.  And,  again,  some  astronomers,  including 
Professor  Kapteyn  of  Groningen,  the  distinguished 
Dutch  astronomer,  have  suggested,  that  a  large  part  of 
the  visible  universe  is  occupied  by  two  vast  streams 
or  drifts  of  stars  moving  in  nearly  opposite  directions, 
the  supposed  line  of  approach  of  the  intersecting 
streams — one  travelling  at  the  rate  of  seventeen  miles 
a  second,  and  the  other  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  a 
second — being  that  joining  the  sun  and  Xi  Orionis, 
and  lying  nearly  in  the  plane  of  the  Milky  Way.  The 
whole  heavens,  forsooth,  are  in  rapid  transit,  and  their 
dislocation  is  but  a  question  of  time. 

Investigations  into  the  motions  of  the  larger  stars 
advancing  towards  or  moving  from  the  solar  system 
have  shown  that  Sinus  the  Dog  Star,  or,  as  it  has  been 
humorously  termed  the  "sky  terrier,"  the  leading  star 
in  the  constellation  of  the  Greater  Dog,  is  approaching 
at  the  rate  of  five  miles  a  second ;  Vega  in  the  constella- 
tion of  the  Lyre,  at  nine;  Arcturus  in  the  constellation 
of  the  Bear  Driver,  at  three ;  Altair  in  the  constellation  of 


General  Remarks  21 

the  Flying  Eagle,  at  2oJ ;  and  the  bright  star  Procyon 
in  the  constellation  of  the  Lesser  Dog,  at  2}  miles  a 
second.  Whilst  the  red  star  Aldebaran  in  the  constel- 
lation of  the  great  Bull  is  receding  at  the  rate  of 
thirty-four  miles  a  second ;  Capella  the  leading  brilliant 
in  the  constellation  of  the  Charioteer,  at  i8j;  Rigel 
in  the  constellation  of  the  Mighty  Hunter  Orion,  at 
thirty;  Castor  in  the  constellation  of  the  Twins,  at 
four;  and  Pollux,  in  the  same  constellation,  at  two 
miles  a  second.  It  will  thus  be  noticed  that  while  the 
twin  brethren,  Castor  and  Pollux,  have  been  standing 
apparently  side  by  side,  with  their  feet  in  the  Milky 
Way,  for  over  forty  centuries,  they  have  actually  been 
drifting  apart  at  the  rate  of  over  seven  thousand  miles 
an  hour.  Despite  their  rapid  flight,  so  remote  are 
they  that  their  position  with  regard  to  each  other,  as 
far  as  the  human  eye  can  judge,  has  not  undergone  any 
sensible  change.  They  still  maintain  their  fraternal 
relationship,  and  are  apparently  as  much  the  Heavenly 
Twins  to-day,  as  they  were  in  the  time  of  Homer  and 
Hesiod  (800  B.C.). 

From  the  earliest  times  the  stars,  which  to  each 
succeeding  age  have  been  a  beauty  and  a  mystery, 
have  been  divided  up  into  groups  known  as  "  constella- 
tions." The  men  of  old  saw  in  these  groupings,  which 
were  extremely  irregular  in  size  and  shape,  the  figures 
of  persons,  animals,  and  other  objects,  fixed  on  the  ^ 
purple  walls  of  the  sky,  and  naturally  called  the  con- 
stellations after  them.  The  practice  of  giving  names 
and  shapes  to  the  star-groups,  in  which  imagination 
was  a  most  potent  factor,  is  generally  supposed  to  have 
originated  on  the  Euphrates.  A  few  of  the  groupings 
bear  vague  resemblance  to  the  objects  from  which 
they  are  named,  but  in  the  majority  of  instances  the 


22  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

likeness  is  purely  fanciful.  Many  of  the  constellations 
appear  to  have  been  invented  for  the  purpose  of  immor- 
talising the  heroes,  heroines,  and  fabled  beasts  of 
mythological  lore.  Imperfect  as  they  are,  the  old 
pictures  and  groupings  are  still  retained,  not  only  for 
convenience  in  finding  the  individual  stars,  but  also 
on  account  of  the  confusion  that  would  arise  were 
they  now  abandoned.  Besides,  they  are  of  too  much 
historical  value  to  admit  of  their  ever  being  discarded. 

And  thus  the  stars 
At  once  took  names,  and  rise  familiar  now. 

EUDOXUS. 

Quoting  from  Burr's  tribute  in  The  Stars  of  God: 
"  Celestial  antiquities,  we  salute  you,  and  through  you 
most  reverently  that  Ancient  of  Days  from  whom  you 
come  and  on  whose  errands  you  go." 

The  earliest  description  of  the  sky  on  record  is 
contained  in  the  3>aiv6^eva,  a  celebrated  astronomi- 
cal poem,  by  Aratus  of  Soli  (271  B.C.),  court  physician 
to  Antigonus  Gonatas,  King  of  Macedonia.  It  con- 
sisted of  732  verses,  and  was  a  versification  of  the 
prose  work  of  Eudoxus  of  Cnidus  in  Asia  Minor, 
which  was  based  upon  observations  of  the  heavens 
made  probably  by  Chaldean  astronomers  fifteen 
centuries  before.  It  may  here  be  of  interest  to  note 
that  Aratus  is  the  poet  referred  to  by  St.  Paul, 
when  in  his  sermon  on  Mars  Hill,  he  tells  the  novelty- 
loving  Athenians  (Acts  xvii.,  28),  that  "certain  also 
of  your  own  poets  have  said,  For  we  are  also  His 
offspring"  (fifth  line  of  the  ^atvd^eva). 

A  word  may  be  said  here  concerning  duplication  of 
stellar  figures,  which  is,  as  mentioned  by  Olcott,  not 
uncommon.  In  many  cases  two  figures  are  found  in 


General  Remarks  23 

close  proximity,  as,  for  instance,  the  figures  of  two 
Bears,  two  Dogs,  two  Fishes,  two  Lions,  etc.  Then 
again,  there  are  two  Crowns,  two  Streams,  two  Goats, 
as  well  as  several  Serpents,  Giants,  and  Birds.  And 
further,  many  of  the  constellations,  it  will  be  noticed, 
are  closely  connected  with  neighbouring  figures,  as,  for 
instance,  the  gallant  Perseus  with  upraised  sword  rush- 
ing to  the  rescue  of  the  fair  Andromeda,  the  Mighty 
Hunter  with  his  starry  club  threatening  the  advancing 
Bull,  the  Scorpion  attempting  to  sting  Ophiuchus  as  he 
is  crushing  the  Serpent  in  his  hands,  Aquarius  pouring 
water  from  an  urn  into  the  mouth  of  the  Southern  Fish, 
and  the  wonderful  Archer  forever  aiming  a  shaft  at 
the  heart  of  the  famous  "Stinger/*  the  reputed  slayer 
of  Orion.  Then,  too,  the  Herdsman's  hounds  are  ob- 
served following  and  harassing  the  Great  Bear,  the 
Water-Snake  pursuing  the  Lesser  Dog,  and  the  timid 
Hare  fleeing  before  the  Dogs  of  Orion;  while  in  the 
so-called  great  celestial  sea,  numerous  marine  creatures 
are  seen,  such  as  the  Whale,  the  Dolphin,  the  Fishes, 
the  Sea-Goat,  the  Crane,  and  the  Southern  Fish. 

The  number  of  constellations  formed  by  the  ancients 
is  forty-eight,  while  about  forty  have  since  been  added. 
Of  these,  sixty-seven  are  now  recognised  as  in  ordinary 
use.  Fifty-eight  of  the  more  noticeable  ones  are  em- 
braced in  this  book.  Twelve  of  them  follow  one  another 
along  the  ecliptic  and  bear  the  same  names  as  its  signs. 
The  names  of  Jtbe4ifferent  constellations  will  be  found 
on  the'charts,  where  also,  it  will  be  observed,  the  more 
importarit_stars_of  a  constellation  have  been  linked  up 
by  Dotted  lines. 

Owu$  to  the  yearly  motion  of  the  earth  around  the 
sun,  the  stars  rise  and  set  nearly  four  minutes  (3m.  563.) 
earlier  each  successive  evening,  and  thus,  roughly 


24  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

speaking,  they  are  always  ' '  four  minutes  fast/ '  Besides, 
the  sun  appears  to  gain  steadily  upon  the  stars,  so  that 
stars  seen  in  the  south  at  one  time  of  the  year,  because 
they  are  opposite  the  sun,  are  invisible  six  months 
later  on  account  of  the  brightness  of  the  sunlight.  It 
will  thus  be  noticed  that  as  four  minutes  of  time 
correspond  to  one  degree  of  space  measured  on  the  face 
of  the  sky,  the  aspect  of  the  heavens  changes  from  night 
to  night  by  reason  of  the  shifting  of  the  constellations 
about  one  degree  westward  every  twenty-four  hours. 
And  further,  that  in  the  course  of  a  year  the  revolution 
is  completed  and  the  stars  are  observed  in  precisely 
the  same  places  they  occupied  a  year  before.  Thus 
the  stars  that  are  seen  on  summer  nights  this  year  will 
be  seen  on  summer  nights  next  year,  and  the  year  after, 
and  for  ages  to  come. 

About  one  hundred  of  the  brighter  stars  have  received 
individual  names.  Many  of  the  first-magnitude  stars 
have  proper  names  of  Greek  or  Latin  origin,  while  some 
are  Arabic.  Most  of  the  smaller  ones  have  Arabic 
names.  Then,  too,  the  chief  stars  in  any  constellation 
are  designated  by  the  small  letters  of  the  Greek  alpha- 
bet. Thus  the  best  star  in  Cygnus,  the  Swan,  is  a 
Cygni — the  Alpha  star  of  the  constellation  Cygnus; 
the  next  £  Cygni,  and  so  on. 

The  brightest  stars  are  usually  spoken  of  by  their 
individual  names,  but  the  less  important  stars  are 
referred  to  by  either  their  proper  or  family  names;  as 
Alpheratz  or  a  Andromedas,  Caph  or  fi  Cassiopeias, 
Hamal  or  a  Arietis. 

And  again,  the  stars  are  designated  by  a  system  of 
numbers,  such  as  Flamsteed  assigned,  arranged  usually 
in  the  order  of  right  ascension,  without  regard  to  their 
brilliancy. 


General  Remarks  25 

The  general  practice  among  astronomers  of  to-day 
has  been  to  identify  the  stars  that  bestrew  the  sky,  not 
so  much  by  their  names  as  by  their  numbers  in  some 
well-known  star-catalogue  of  their  positions  in  right 
ascension1  and  declination,  corresponding  to  terrestrial 
longitude  and  latitude.  But  for  the  ordinary  observer, 
it  may  be  said,  that  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
constellation  figures  and  stellar  names  will  have  much 
more  of  interest  than  ordinarily  attaches  to  a  technical 
description  by  star  numbers.  The  statement  that  a 
star  is  situated  right  ascension  5  hrs.  50  m.  30.94  s., 
north  declination  7°  23'  30. 83"  (mean  place  Jan.  0.49 
day  1914),  is  enough  perhaps  for  the  professional 
astronomer;  but  for  most  people,  if  not  for  all,  it  is 
better  to  call  it  Betelgeux  in  the  constellation  of 
Orion. 

Of  the  several  imaginary  great  circles  considered  by 
astronomers  as  drawn  in  the  heavens,  one  very  con- 
venient  circle  of  reference  is  the  ecliptic.  It  is  the  great 
circle  indicating  the  apparent  annual  path  of  the  sun 
eastward  among  the  stars;  the  extension  outward  to 
the  starry  sphere  of  the  plane  in  which  the  earth  moves 
round  the  sun.  Astronomically  speaking  it  is  as  de- 
finite a  circle  or  line  as  is  the  horizon,  and  is  called 
the  ecliptic  because  eclipses  can  happen  only  when  the 
moon  is  on  or  very  near  that  curved  line.  It  is  inclined 
to  the  celestial  equator  or  equinoctial,  which  is  a  projec- 
tion of  the  terrestrial  equator  extended  toward  the  stars, 
at  an  angle  of  about  23 £°.  Milton  accounts  for  the 

1  Celestial  longitude,  as  distinguished  from  right  ascension,  is  distance 
from  the  vernal  equinox,  reckoned  eastward,  along  the  ecliptic,  and  is 
expressed  in  degrees  instead  of  hours.  Celestial  latitude,  as  distinguished 
from  declination,  is  distance  north  or  south  of  the  ecliptic.  For  most 
purposes,  it  may  be  said  that  equatorial  and  polar  measurements  are 
the  most  convenient. 


26  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

obliquity,  as  if  by  direct  interposition  of  the  Creator, 
thus: 

Some  say  he  bids  his  angels  turn  askance 
The  poles  of  earth  twice  ten  degrees  or  more 
From  the  sun's  axle;  they  with  labour  push'd 
Oblique  the  centric  globe;  some  say,  the  sun 
Was  bid  turn  reins  from  th'  equinoctial  road 
Like  distant  breadth  to  Taurus  with  the  seven 
Atlantic  Sisters,  and  the  Spartan  Twins, 
Up  to  the  Tropic  Crab;  thence  down  amain 
By  Leo  and  the  Virgin,  and  the  Scales, 
As  deep  as  Capricorn,  to  bring  in  change 
Of  seasons  to  each  clime. 

The  crossing  points  of  the  celestial  equator  and  the 
ecliptic,  during  the  year,  are  respectively  the  vernal 
and  the  autumnal  equinox,  while  the  points  midway 
between  these,  where  the  tropics  touch  the  ecliptic, 
are  respectively  the  summer  and  winter  solstice.  The 
line  of  the  ecliptic  is  north  of  the  equator  from  the  ver- 
nal to  the  autumnal  equinox,  and  south  of  it  from  the 
autumnal  back  to  the  vernal  equinox. 

There  is,  furthermore,  an  imaginary  zone  or  belt 
encircling  the  heavens,  extending  about  eight  degrees 
above  and  below  the  ecliptic,  called  the  zodiac.  It  is 
of  very  great  antiquity,  having  originated,  it  is  com- 

ymonly  believed,  in  archaic  Euphratean  astronomy. 
It  is  called  the  zodiac  because  the  constellations  in  it, 
with  the  exception  of  Libra,  are  all  figures  of  animals. 
/  By  some  it  has  been  humorously  styled  the  "zoological 
garden  of  the  sky."  It  is  the  area  or  space  within  which 
the  sun,  moon,  and  all  the  planetary  bodies,  except  some 
of  the  planetoids,  appear  to  perform  their  annual 
revolutions. 


General  Remarks  27 

At  an  early  date  the  ecliptic  and  consequently  the 
zodiac  was  divided  into  twelve  parts  of  thirty  de- 
grees each,  called  signs  of  the  zodiac,  referred  to  in 
the  Book  of  Job,  seventeen  centuries  before  the 
Christian  Era,  under  the  name  of  Mazzaroth,  along 
with  the  Pleiades,  Orion  and  the  Bear.  Each  of 
these  signs  coincided  roughly  with  a  constellation 
after  which  it  was  named,  and  has  retained  its  sym- 
bolic title  to  this  day.  The  twelve  zodiacal  con- 
stellations are  believed  to  be  the  ones  spoken  of  in 
the  astronomical  Psalm  —  the  xixth  —  as  being  "a 
tabernacle  for  the  sun." 

It  is  perhaps  of  interest  to  note  that  early  in  the 
eighth  century,  the  Venerable  Bede,  an  eminent  his- 
torian of  the  early  English  church,  endeavoured 
to  substitute  eleven  of  the  apostles  for  the  early 
signs,  Peter  taking  the  place  of  the  Ram,  and  John 
the  Baptist  appropriately  taking  that  of  Aquarius 
to  complete  the  circle.  Also,  that  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  astronomers  Bartsch  and  Schiller  ,/ 
both  endeavoured  to  substitute  the  Apostles  for 
these  time-honoured  zodiacal  figures,  while  Sir  William 
Drummond  vainly  tried  to  turn  them  into  a  dozen 
Bible  patriarchs.  And  further,  that  Weigel  of  the 
University  of  Jena  proposed  that  a  series  of  heraldic 
constellations  be  formed,  the  zodiac  being  composed 
of  the  arms  of  the  twelve  foremost  families  of  Europe. 
It  is  unnecessary,  perhaps,  to  state  that  all  these  at- 
tempts to  displace  the  old  and  popular  constellation 
names  failed  utterly. 

The  names  of  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac  beginning 
at  the  vernal  equinox  and  passing  eastward  are  familiar 
to  everyone  from  the  well-known  English  memory 
verse: 


28  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  Ram,  the  Bull,  the  Heavenly  Twins, 
And  next  the  Crab,  the  Lion  shines, 
The  Virgin  and  the  Scales. 
The  Scorpion,  the  Archer,  and  Sea-Goat, 
The  Man  that  pours  the  Water  out 
And  Fish  with  glittering  tails. 


The  spring  signs  are  Aries,  Taurus,  and  Gemini; 
the  summer  signs  are  Cancer,  Leo,  and  Virgo;  the 
autumn  signs  are  Libra,  Scorpio,  and  Sagittarius;  and 
the  winter  signs  are  Capricornus,  Aquarius,  and  Pisces. 

The  motion  of  the  north  celestial  pole  around  that 
of  the  ecliptic  occasioned  by  the  attraction  of  the  sun 
and  moon  upon  the  earth  at  the  equator — the  position 
of.  the  celestial  poles  being  dependent  upon  that  of  the 
earth's  poles — causes  what  is  known  as  the  Precession 
of  the  Equinoxes.  This  phenomenon,  discovered  by 
Hipparchus,  "The  Father  of  Astronomy/'  while  at 
work  on  his  celebrated  catalogue  two  thousand  years 
ago,  is  the  slow  westward  movement  of  the  equinoxes 
along  the  ecliptic,  at  the  rate  of  about  fifty  seconds  a 
year,  one  degree  in  seventy-two  years,  or  a  sign  in 
2150  years.  At  the  time  the  constellations  were  named 
the  equinoctial  points  were  in  the  constellations  Aries 
and  Libra,  but  by  reason  of  the  precession  of  the  equi- 
noxes they  have  retrograded  nearly  a  whole  sign,  and 
are  now  in  the  constellations  Pisces  and  Virgo.  Hence, 
while  the  vernal  equinox,  sometimes  called  the  "Green- 
wich of  the  Sky,"  the  passage  of  the  sun  through  which 
betokens  the  opening  of  spring,  is  in  the  sign  Aries,  this 
sign  now  corresponds  to  the  constellation  Pisces,  and 
will  soon  pass  to  Aquarius.  The  name,  "first  point  of 
Aries,"  is,  however,  still  applied  to  it  by  time-honoured 
usage.  In  a  period  of  about  25,800  years,  the  equinox 


Copyright  by  Underwood  and  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

PLATE  III.     The  Long  Slant  Passage  of  the  Great  Pyramid 


^ 


I 

General  Remarks  29 

ought  to  have  visited  all  the  constellations  of  the  zodiac, 
and  the  signs  should  have  backed  entirely  round  the 
circle  of  the  ecliptic. 

Another  effect  of  this  gyratory  motion  of  the  north 
celestial  pole  —  like  that  of  some  mighty  top  —  around 
that  of  the  ecliptic,  describing  a  circle  whose  radius  is 
232  degrees,  is  a  change  in  the  pole  star.  The  star 
Polaris,  the  most  observed  of  all  stars,  long  known  as 
the  North  Star,  will  not  alwa}^  hold  this  post  of  honour. 
It  is  now  about  ii  degrees  from  the  true  pole,  around 
which,  notwithstanding  it  seems  stationary  in  the 
heavens,  it  describes  a  small  but  appreciable  circle. 
This  distance  will  gradually  diminish  until  about  the 
year  2100,  when  it  will  be  less  than  half  a  degree,  after 
which  Polaris  will  slowly  recede  from  the  pole.  In  about 
5600  years,  Alderamin  or  Alpha  Cephei  will  occupy  the 
position  of  pole  star;  in  seven  thousand  years  the  fine 
and  comparatively  young  star  Deneb  or  Alpha  Cygni;  v 
and  in  11,500  years  the  brilliant  star  Vega.  S  It  may 
not  be  without  interest  to  note,  that  when  Vega  be- 
comes the  north  polar-star,  the  brilliant  Canopus  — 
Mohammed's  star  —  in  the  southern  constellation  Argo 
Navis  will  be  sufficiently  near  the  southern  pole  of  the, 
heavens  to  serve  as  a  south  polar-star. 

Some  forty  centuries  ago,  Thuban  was  the  pole  star, 
to  better  view  which,  the  slant  northward-pointing 
passage  in  the  Pyramid  of  Cheops  is  supposed  to  have 
been  built  (Plate  III.).  In  about  twenty-one  thousand 
years  it  will  again  mark  the  pole  of  the  heavens,  and 
be  succeeded  once  more  in  office  by  Polaris,  the  entire 
period  of  revolution  being  about  25,800  years. 

NOTE.  —  The  three  pyramids  of  Gizeh  —  the  Pyramid 
of  Cheops,  the  pyramid  of  Chephren  (Cheops'  brother), 
and  the  pyramid  of  Mycerinus  (Cheops'  son)  —  are  situ- 


/ 


30  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

ated  near  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile  about  eight 
miles  from  Cairo,  in  latitude  29°  58'  51".  They  stand, 
not  far  apart,  on  a  line  from  north-east  to  south-west, 
on  an  elevated  plateau  of  four  hundred  acres,  about  1 50 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  desert.  Nearby  is  the  Great 
Sphinx  carved  out  of  a  knob  of  natural  rock,  and  re- 
cently discovered  to  be  hollow,  the  body  representing 
the  body  of  a  lion,  and  the  head  a  portrait  of  Pharaoh 
Chephren.  North  and  south  are  groups  of  pyramids, 
temples,  and  tombs,  while  to  the  westward  stretches  the 
vast  Libyan  Desert. 

The  Great  Pyramid  of  Cheops  (Plate  II.),  sometimes 
known  as  the  East  Pyramid,  is  situated  on  a  platform 
of  rock,  close  to  the  verge  of  the  elevated  plateau,  and 
covers  nearly  thirteen  acres.  Its  four  sides  face  the 
cardinal  points  of  the  compass.  It  is  now  about  450 
feet  high,  and  its  square  base  measures  746  feet  on  a 
side.  The  steps,  which  are  said  to  number  208,  are 
about  the  height  of  an  average  table.  The  only  en- 
trance (as  in  most  of  the  pyramids)  is  on  the  northern 
face,  about  50  feet  above  the  ground.  The  entrance 
passage  of  32  by  4  feet,  slants  at  an  angle  of  26°  41', 
and  leads  down  this  steep  incline  through  the  solid  rock 
for  a  distance  of  about  380  feet,  to  a  small  subterranean 
chamber,  96  feet  underground.  When  viewed  from 
the  bottom  of  the  tunnel  the  mouth  appears  but  little 
larger  than  the  moon's  apparent  diameter.  The 
observer  within  looking  out  of  the  tunnel  is  about  in 
line  with  the  pole  star,  and  it  is  commonly  supposed 
that  the  object  for  which  the  tunnel  was  built,  was  to 
enable  the  Egyptian  astronomer-priests  to  better 
observe  the  pole  star  of  Cheops'  time,  when  at  its 
lower  culmination. 

After  penetrating  over  60  feet  within  the  pyramid 


General  Remarks  31 

the  entrance  passage  connects  with  an  ascending  branch 
passage,  about  no  feet  long,  at  an  angle  of  26°,  leading 
to  a  landing  from  which  lead  two  passages.  One  pas- 
sage about  126  feet  long,  running  horizontal,  connects 
with  the  queen's  chamber  (17  by  19  feet,  and  20  feet 
high),  which  is  almost  in  the  centre  of  the  pyramid,  67 
feet  above  its  base.  The  other  passage  leads  upwards, 
and  opens  into  a  grand  gallery  28  feet  high,  7  feet 
wide,  and  162  feet  long,  which  opens  into  the  several 
chambers  composing  the  royal  sepulchre. 

The  king's  chamber,  which  is  built  in  the  axis  of  the 
pyramid,  131  feet  above  the  ground,  is  a  plain  bare 
room,  thirty-four  feet  long,  sixteen  feet  wide,  and  twenty 
feet  high,  lined  with  highly  polished  red  granite.  It 
contains  only  an  empty  sarcophagus  of  red  granite, 
the  mummy  of  the  king  and  the  funeral  equipment 
having  disappeared  when  the  pyramids  were  ruthlessly 
opened  and  plundered  by  the  Arabs. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  SPRING 

Roll  on,  ye  Stars!  exult  in  youthful  prime, 

Mark  with  bright  curves  the  printless  steps  of  time. 

ERASMUS  DARWIN. 

IN  the  onward  procession  of  the  year,  from  equinox 
to  equinox,  each  of  the  seasons  has  its  own  characteristic 
groups  of  stars.  The  constellations  Leo,  Virgo,  and 
Bootes,  that  foreshadow  the  advent  of  spring,  are  as 
much  a  part  of  the  vernal  season  as  are  the  earliest 
verdure,  the  buds,  the  blossoms,  and  the  birds.  Their 
stars  have  an  entirely  different  individuality  from  those 
stellar  gems  that  shone  resplendent  in  the  winter  sky, 
or  from  those  softly  glowing  stars  that  herald  the  near 
approach  of  gay  summer,  when,  in  the  words  of  eloquent 
Serviss, "  the  starlight  falls  without  a  ripple  in  the  languid 


air." 


There  is  in  fact,  it  may  be  observed,  a  spring  sky,  a 
summer  sky,  an  autumn  sky,  and  a  winter  sky,  each 
possessing  a  charm  and  interest  peculiarly  its  own. 
Longfellow  was  doubtless  thinking  of  the  flowery 
spring-time  when  in  Evangeline  he  wrote: 

Silently  one  by  one,  in  the  infinite  meadows  of  heaven, 
Blossomed   the  lovely  stars,   the   forget-me-nots   of  the 
angels. 

3* 


CHART 

FOR  ABOUT  MAR  20 
(TtieVtrnalEquinoxj 
915PM 


THE  ZODIACALBAND 
EXTENDS  8* ON  EACH 
SIDE  OFTHE  ECLIPTIC. 


CHART  1- SPRING  NIGHT  SKY 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  33 

It  makes  no  difference  at  what  calendar  record 
the  year  commences;  so  far  as  the  seasons  and 
constellations  are  concerned,  it  begins  when  the 
trees  begin  to  bud,  the  grass  to  grow,  and  the  earth 
wakens  out  of  its  winter  sleep.  So  following  nature's 
rule  in  the  succession  of  the  seasons,  as  well  as  an 
old  English  custom  abandoned  since  the  middle  of 
the  1 8th  century,  the  opening  of  the  year,  for  the 
purposes  of  this  book  at  least,  will  be  reckoned  as 
taking  place  when  the  sun  transits  the  equator 
about  the  2Oth  of  March — the  epoch  of  the  vernal 
equinox — instead  of  on  the  1st  of  January,  as  fixed  by 
statute. 

The  return  of  spring  and  the  annual  rejuvenation 
of  earth  have  been  hailed  with  delight  in  all  ages  of 
the  world.  The  kingly  poet  sang  thus  alluringly 
of  it: 

For,  lo,  the  winter  is  past, 

The  rain  is  over  and  gone ; 

The  flowers  appear  on  the  earth ; 

The  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  is  come. 

Solomon's  Song  ii.,  11-12. 

In  Persia  it  has  been  celebrated  for  some  six  thousand 
years  by  the  "Feast  of  Novrooz,"  as  a  time  for  general 
rejoicing,  first  observed  by  Jamshyd,  the  fourth  king 
of  the  Pishdadian  dynasty,  whose  glory  was  sting  by 
Sor-adi  and  Omar  Khayyam.  Then,  too,  it  was  in  the 
spring-time  of  creation  that  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  and  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy.  It  was 
spring  when  Pippa,  from  the  silk  mills,  passed  with  her 
lilting  carol — a  New  Year's  day  at  Asolo  in  the  Trevisan, 
but  spring  here: 


34  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  year's  at  the  spring 
And  day's  at  the  morn; 
Morning's  at  seven; 
The  hillside's  dew-pearled; 
The  lark's  on  the  thorn; 
God's  in  his  heaven — 
All's  right  with  the  world ! 

ROBERT  BROWNING. 


The  aspect  of  the  night-sky  at  the  various  seasons 
of  the  year  is  represented  on  the  four  charts  in  the 
body  of  the  book,  which  also  in  their  entirety  trace 
the  annual  course  of  the  stars  and  constellations.  The 
relative  positions  of  the  celestial  equator,  the  ecliptic, 
and  the  horizon,  as  also  of  the  equinoctial  and  solstitial 
points,  are  all  shown  on  the  charts. 

Chart  I  represents  the  appearance  of  the  night-sky 
at  about  9:45  P.M.  on  the  2Oth  of  March,  about 
11:00  P.M.  on  the  ist  of  March,  9:00  P.M.  on  the  1st 
of  April,  8:00  P.M.  on  the  I5th  of  April,  and  about 
7:00  P.M.  on  the  ist  of  May.  Then,  too,  a  change 
of  several  days,  either  forward  or  backward  from  the 
dates  here  given,  alters  but  little  the  correspondence 
of  the  chart  with  the  sky  at  the  hours  stated.  For,  as 
noted  in  the  previous  chapter,  the  stars  rise  not  quite 
four  minutes  earlier  each  evening,  and  so  the  daily 
westward  shift  of  the  entire  sky  measures  but  a  degree. 
And,  further,  the  chart  is  equally  applicable  at  other 
night-hours  in  subsequent  months  of  the  year,  allowing 
always  that  the  alteration  in  the  position  of  the  stars 
amounts  in  a  month  to  two  hours.  The  same  statement 
may  be  made  relative  to  each  chart. 

In  matching  the  charts  with  the  sky,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  the  centre  of  the  chart  corresponds 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  35 

to  the  zenith  (the  point  directly  overhead),  and  the 
outline  of  the  chart  represents  the  natural  horizon. 
Also  that  the  observer  is  supposed  to  be  facing  north 
or  south  along  the  meridian,  which  is  an  imaginary 
circle  on  the  celestial  sphere,  drawn  through  the  zenith 
and  the  celestial  poles.  A  star  or  other  celestial  body 
when  crossing  the  meridian  is  equidistant  from  its 
rising  and  setting  points,  and  is  said  to  be  at  the  point 
of  culmination.  Two  culminations  take  place  daily, 
one  above  and  the  other  below  the  pole.  The  former 
is  called  the  upper,  and  the  latter  the  lower  culmination. 
The  upper  culmination  of  the  sun  occurs  at  noon  or 
mid-day,  apparent  solar  time,  and  that  of  the  full  moon 
at  midnight.  And  again,  a  star  is  said  to  transit  when 
it  crosses  the  meridian.  Every  star  transits  due  north 
or  south.  When  stars  transit  together  or  within  a  few 
minutes  of  each  other,  they  are  known  as  "simul- 
transit "  stars.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  it  is  when  the  stars  are  on  the  meridian  that  they 
are  in  the  most  favourable  position  for  observation 
and  identification. 

The  observer,  whether  facing  south  or  north,  should 
hold  the  chart  over  the  head,  remembering  always  to 
have  its  north,  south,  east,  and  west  points  properly 
placed.  An  easy  general  view  of  the  heavens  may  be 
obtained  by  lying  on  the  back  with  the  head  to  the 
north,  when  the  sky  may  be  readily  compared  with  the 
chart  held  .overhead.  Then  again,  as  suggested  by 
Serviss,  a  mirror  held  on  the  lap  will  be  found  a  great 
convenience  in  studying  the  constellations  which  are 
almost  or  directly  overhead. 

About  the  only  outfit  the  sky-student  really  requires 
to  view  the  sky,  is  the  proper  chart,  a  pocket  electric 
flash-light  with  which  to  examine  the  chart,  and  perhaps 


The  Call  of  the  Stars 


FIG.    i.     The    Barritt-Serviss 
Star  and  Planet  Finder. 


a  good,  strong  opera-glass,  or  field-glass,  or  a  small 
telescope.  There  may  be  times,  however,  when  a  pocket 
compass  will  prove  of  service  in  indicating  where  true 

north  is.  To  many,  a  revolv- 
ing planisphere,  such  as  the 
Barritt-Serviss  Star  and 
Planet  Finder  (Fig.  i),  may 
be  found  useful. 

The  beginner  is  apt  to  be 
somewhat  confused,  at  first, 
by  the  planets  or  "  wander- 
ing" stars,  which  move  about 
through  the  zodiacal  con- 
stellations. He  will,  how- 
ever, soon  come  to  know  them 

by  their  greater  apparent  size,  their  peculiar  movements, 
and  their  tranquil  light.  The  dull  red-yellow  glare  of 
Saturn,  the  soft  luminosity  of  Venus,  the  steady  bril- 
liance of  Jupiter,  the  bright  ruddy  light  of  Mars,  and 
the  rosy  lustre  of  elusive  little  Mercury,  serve  to  easily 
distinguish  them  from  the  fixed  stars. 

Ursa  Major 

(The  Greater  Bear) 

If  the  observer  is  viewing  the  vernal  sky  at  about  10  :oo 
P.M.  on  the  2oth  of  March,  9:00  P.M.  the  first  week  of 
April,  or  8:00  P.M.  the  middle  of  April,  he  will  notice 
in  the  northern  central  portion  of  the  heavens  the  best 
known  and  most  important  of  the  constellations,  Ursa 
Major,  the  Greater  Bear.  And  it  requires  no  great 
effort  of  imagination  to  see  the  monstrous  beast  striding 
westward  across  the  sky,  with  Bootes  and  his  hounds 
in  perpetual  pursuit.  It  is  easily  recognisable  by  its 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  37 

seven  principal  stars,  six  of  which  are  of  the  second 
magnitude,  and  one  of  the  third,  which  when  linked 
together  form  the  remarkable  figure  familiarly  known 
as  The  Dipper,  or  the  Big  Dipper.  It  is  always,  either 
wholly  or  partly,  above  the  horizon  at  and  north  of 
the  latitudes  of  'New  York  and  Chicago,  and  can, 
along  with  the  other  circumpolar  constellations,  Draco, 
Cepheus,  Cassiopeia,  Camelopardalis,  and  Ursa  Minor, 
be  seen  on  any  clear  night  throughout  the  year,  re- 
volving close  to  the  pole  star. 

.  .  .  round  and  round  the  frozen  Pole 
Glideth  the  lean  white  bear. 

R.  W.  BUCHANAN. 

That  the  stars  in  these  circumpolar  constellations 
are  not  seen  by  day,  is  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
sun-light  blots  them  out. 

In  The  Ancient  Sage,  Tennyson  alludes  to  them  as 

...  some  that  never  set,  but  pass 

From  sight  and  night  to  lose  themselves  in  day. 

Ursa  Major  contains  over  one  hundred  and  thirty 
visible  stars,  of  which  six  are  of  the  second  magnitude, 
eleven  of  the  third,  and  a  number  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth,  while  twenty  of  the  brightest  have  received  indi- 
vidual names.  It  extends  over  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  northern  sky,  a  little  less  than  one  quarter  of  its 
space  being  occupied  by  The  Dipper.  It  is  bounded 
on  the  north  by  Draco  and  Camelopardalis,  on  the  east 
by  Canes  Venatici,  on  the  south  by  Leo  Minor,  and  on 
the  west  by  Lynx  and  Camelopardalis. 

The  figure  of  the  bowl  of  the  dipper  marks  the  flank 
of  the  Bear,  and  its  handle,  which  is  about  twelve 


38  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

degrees  in  length,  represents  its  "impossible"  tail. 
The  stars  Alpha  and  Beta  Ursae  Majoris,  commonly 
known  as  Dubhe  and  Merak,  the  two  stars  which  form 
the  front  edge  of  the  bowl,  are  the  most  popular  of  the 
seven  stars  of  The  Dipper.  They  are  often  called 
"pointers,"  because  they  are  almost  directly  in  line 
with  Polaris,  a  second-magnitude  star  at  the  tip  of  the 
Lesser  Bear's  tail,  which  marks  with  fair  accuracy  the 
north  pole.  It  is  said  that  Tennyson's  sight  was  so 
short  that,  without  optical  aid,  they  appeared  to  him 
as  "two  intersecting  circles,  like  the  first  proposition  in 
Euclid." 

The  distance  between  the  pointers  is  about  five  de- 
grees, hence  they  may  be  advantageously  employed  by 
the  observer  as  a  rough  measuring  stick  with  which  to 
estimate  celestial  distances.  The  distance  from  Dubhe 
to  the  pole  star  is  about  five  times  that  between  it  and 
its  associate  pointer  Merak.  The  distance  between 
the  two  stars  Dubhe  and  Megrez  in  the  brim  of  the  bowl 
of  the  Dipper  is  about  ten  degrees.  It  may  here  be 
of  interest  to  note  that  there  are  three  standards  of 
measurement  provided  in  the  heavens.  The  length  of 
the  belt  of  Orion  is  three  degrees;  the  distance  from 
Merak  to  Dubhe  is  five  degrees;  and  the  average  ap- 
parent diameter  of  the  moon  is  half  a  degree.  Then, 
too,  any  object  that  appears  half  a  degree  in  diameter 
is  about  114  times  its  own  height  or  breadth,  away. 

The  set  of  bright  stars  that  form  The  Dipper  has 
been  long  associated  in  name  with  other  objects  to 
which  it  seems  to  bear  some  resemblance.  In  Eng- 
land, it  is  generally  styled  the  "Plough,"  or  at  times 
"Charles's  Wain"  from  its  fancied  resemblance  to  a 
waggon  drawn  by  three  horses  tandem.  The  early 
Christians  regarded  it  as  the  "Bier  of  Lazarus,"  the 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  39 

three  stars  in  the  tail  of  the  Bear,  representing  Mary, 
Martha,  and  Mary  Magdalene.  The  people  of  the  far 
north,  the  Eskimos,  imagined  it  to  be  a  reindeer ;  while 
to  the  Druids  it  was  known  as  "Arthur's  Chariot." 

Sir  Walter  Scott  thus  alludes  to  it  in  the  Lay  of  the 
Last  Minstrel: 

Arthur's  slow  wain  his  course  doth  roll 
In  utter  darkness  round  the  pole. 

It  is  quite  likely  that  this  group  of  stars,  and  not 
Arcturus,  the  leading  brilliant  in  Bootes,  is  what  is 
referred  to  in  one  of  the  questions  which  the  Lord 
addressed  to  Job  out  of  the  whirlwind: 

Cans't  thou  guide  Arcturus  with  his  sons  ? 

As  translated  in  the  Revised  Version  the  passage  reads: 

Cans't  thou  guide  the  Bear  with  her  train? 

The  four  stars  making  the  bowl  of  the  dipper,  it  has 
been  thought,  represent  the  Bear,  and  the  three  handle 
stars,  the  cubs  following  in  her  train. 

According  to  legend  the  Greater  Bear  was  Callisto 
or  Helice,  a  nymph,  the  daughter  of  Lycaon,  King  of 
Arcadia,  who,  by  reason  of  her  beauty,  incurred  the 
jealous  wrath  of  Juno,  the  queen  of  heaven.  Jupiter, 
to  protect  Callisto,  who  was  Juno's  attendant,  from 
injury  at  the  hands  of  her  mistress,  transformed  her 
into  a  bear.  Areas,  Callisto's  son  by  Jupiter,  when  out 
hunting,  not  recognising  his  mother,  was  about  to  slay 
her  with  his  uplifted  spear,  when  Jupiter,  in  pity,  changed 
him  into  a  little  bear  (Ursa  Minor),  and  placed  him 
and  his  mother  among  the  stars.  In  Addison's  transla- 
tion of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  it  is  stated  that  Jove 


40  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

snatched  them  through  the  air 
In  whirlwinds  up  to  heaven  and  fixed  them  there: 
Where  the  new  constellations  nightly  rise, 
And  add  a  lustre  to  the  northern  skies. 


It  is  further  related  by  an  old  writer,  Dr.  Thomas 
Hood,  that  as  Jupiter  swung  the  bears  up  into  the  sky, 
their  tails  stretched,  and  the  abnormal  length  of  these 
most  un-ursine  appendages  is  thus  happily  accounted 
for. 

The  Bear,  which  possesses  many  interesting  features, 
will  be  found  a  great  help  in  locating  adjacent  constel- 
lations, and  has  been  long  important  as  marking  the 
seasons.  In  spring  evenings  the  seven  stars  forming 
The  Dipper,  which,  it  is  said,  exceed  the  sun  in  brilliancy 
from  thirty  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  times,  are  al- 
most directly  overhead,  with  the  handle  of  the  dipper 
pointing  towards  the  east.  In  summer  evenings  they 
are  in  the  north-west,  with  the  handle  pointing  upwards. 
In  autumn  evenings  they  are  low  down  on  the  north 
horizon,  with  the  handle  pointing  towards  the  west; 
while  in  winter  evenings  they  are  seen  toward  the 
north-east,  with  the  handle  pointing  downward.  On 
March  2ist,  the  simul-transit  pair  of  stars,  Merak  and 
Dubhe,  transit — that  is,  cross  the  meridian — at  about 
11:00  P.M.,  and  at  about  11:00  A.M.,  at  lower  culmina- 
tion, on  September  22d. 

The  Dipper  swings  with  a  slow  revolving  motion  in 
a  direction  contrary  to  the  hand's  of  a  clock,  right 
around  the  pole  every  twenty-four  hours,  and  in  early 
times  served  as  a  sort  of  celestial  timepiece,  requiring 
neither  winding  nor  repairing.  During  the  period 
between  twilight  and  dawn,  the  gigantic  hour  hand  of 
this  illuminated  clock,  formed  by  an  imaginary  line 


f 

The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  41 

drawn  through  the  pointers  to  the  pole  star,  will  be 
found  to  have  swung  more  than  half-way  round. 

Shakespeare,  in  King  Henry  IV.,  well  illustrates  its 
use  as  a  timekeeper,  when  he  makes  the  first  carrier 
at  the  Rochester  Inn  yard,  exclaim,  as  he  enters  with 
a  lantern  in  his  hand: 

Heigh-ho!  an  it  be  not  four  by  the  day,  I'll  be  hanged: 
Charles'  Wain  is  over  the  new  chimney,  and  yet  our  horse  is 
not  packed! 

Tennyson  in  his  well-known  New  Year's  Eve,  has  a 
similar  allusion: 

We  danced  about  the  Maypole,  and  in  the  hazel  copse, 
Till  Charles'  Wain  came  out  above  the  tall  white  chimney- 
tops. 

Dickens,  in  Hard  Times,  Book  III.,  chap.  6,  it  will 
be  remembered,  has  a  scene  in  which  the  apparent 
motion  of  the  stars  from  east  to  west  every  twenty-four 
hours,  seems  to  be  ignored.  In  his  description  of  the 
accident  to,  and  death  of,  Stephen  Blackpool,  a  poor 
fellow  who  fell  into  a  disused  pit  called  Old  Hell  Shaft 
and  broke  his  leg,  he  comforts  the  sufferer  during  his 
seven  days  and  nights  of  agony  at  the  bottom  of  the 
pit,  by  a  beautiful  star  shining  brightly  down  upon  him 
unceasingly.  In  the  unfortunate  man's  own  words: 
''Often  as  I  come  to  myseln,  and  found  it  shining  on 
me  down  there  in  my  trouble,  I  thowt  it  were  the  star 
as  guided  to  Our  Saviour's  home.  I  awmust  think  it 
be  the  very  star!"  Poor  old  Stephen,  alas!  gazing  up 
through  the  pit-mouth,  could,  at  best,  have  caught  only 
a  glimpse  of  it  for  a  few  moments  as  it  passed  across 
the  zenith. 


42  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

It  is  said  that  in  ancient  times  the  mariners  of  Greece 
used  the  stars  of  the  Greater  Bear,  the  most  beloved  of 
star-groups,  as  their  guide  in  navigation,  while  the 
Phoenicians  steered  by  Polaris  the  lucida  of  the  Lesser 
Bear.  Manilius,  an  astronomer-poet  of  the  century  pre- 
ceding the  Christian  era,  thus  writes: 

Seven  equal  stars  adorn  the  greater  Bear, 
And  teach  the  Grecian  sailors  how  to  steer. 

Homer,  in  the  fifth  book  of  the  Odyssey  (Wm.  Cowper's 
tr.),  relates  that  Ulysses  was  directed  by  the  lovely 
goddess  Calypso,  to 

hold  the  Bear,  called  else  the  Wain, 
Continual  on  his  left  through  all  his  course, 

that  is,  to  steer  his  raft  due  east. 

Cardan,  an  astrologer-physician  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  it  is  said,  held  that  particular  stars  influenced 
particular  countries,  and  that  the  fate  of  the  greatest 
kingdoms  of  Europe  was  determined  by  the  tail  of 
Ursa  Major.  Butler,  in  Hudibras,  thus  wrote: 

Cardan  believed  great  states  depend 
Upon  the  tip  o'  th'  Bear's  tail's  end. 

The  white  star  at  the  end  of  the  "handle  of  The 
Dipper,"  or  "tail  of  the  Bear,"  has  been  designated 
Alcaid  or  Eta  or  Benetnasch,  the  chief  of  the  mourners. 
It  is  of  the  second  magnitude,  and  marks  the  radiant 
point  of  the  Ursid  meteors  of  November  loth. 

Mizar  or  Zeta,  the  brilliant  white  star  at  the  bend  of 
the  handle,  and  about  seven  degrees  from  Alcaid,  is 
the  most  interesting  of  all  the  stars  of  The  Dipper.  It 
is  one  of  the  finest  double  stars,  its  companion  being  a 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  43 

bluish  telescopic  star  of  the  eighth  magnitude.  In  a 
small  telescope  it  is  a  very  pretty  sight.  The  two  com- 
ponents are  about  14.6  seconds  of  arc  apart.  The 
brighter  component  was  found  by  E.  C.  Pickering  in 
1889,  by  means  of  the  spectroscope,  to  be  itself  double, 
the  pair  revolving  about  a  common  centre  of  gravity 
in  a  period  of  about  twenty  and  a  half  days.  Alcor, 
apparently  close  by,  and  yet  distant  from  it  by  about 
one-third  the  apparent  diameter  of  the  moon,  forms 
with  it  a  beautiful  naked-eye  double  and  a  connected 
system.  These  two  stars  are  sometimes  styled  "the 
Horse  and  the  Rider.*'  Alcor,  the  little  "Rider-Star" 
or  the  "Cavalier,"  was  in  olden  times  regarded  as  a 
test  for  good  sight.  It  has  recently  been  ascertained 
to  be  a  spectroscopic  binary. 

Mizar  is  particularly  interesting  as  being  the  first 
telescopic  double  ever  discovered,  and  was  also  the 
first  double  star  to  be  photographed,  and  the  first  star 
discovered  to  be  again  double  by  the  spectroscope. 
Its  quadruple  system  is  about  ninety-nine  light  years 
distant,  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  eleven  and  a 
half  miles  a  second,  and  is  approaching  the  solar  system 
at  the  rate  of  eight  miles  a  second. 

Alioth  or  Epsilon,  the  third  star  in  the  handle,  about 
four  and  a  half  degrees  toward  the  bowl  from  Mizar, 
is  a  spectroscopic  binary.  It  indicates  very  nearly 
the  radiant  point  of  the  Ursid  meteors  of  November 
3Oth.  A  few  degrees  south  of  it,  and  about  seven 
degrees  north  of  Cor  Caroli,  is  a  wonderful,  brilliant 
red  star,  faintly  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  known  as  La 
Superba,  which  is  the  brightest  star  of  its  class  in  the 
sky.  The  three  stars,  Alcaid,  Mizar,  and  Alioth, 
constitute  the  handle  of  the  dipper. 

The  pale-yellow  star  in  the  rim  of  the  bowl  at  the 


44  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

junction  of  the  handle,  about  five  and  a  half  degrees 
from  Alioth,  is  called  Megrez  or  Delta.  It  is  the  small- 
est and  faintest  of  the  seven  stars  of  The  Dipper.  Both 
it  and  the  star  Caph,  or  Beta  Cassiopeiae,  are  in  the 
equinoctial  colure,  nearly  opposite  each  other,  and 
about  equidistant  from  the  pole.  The  colures,  it 
may  be  stated,  are  two  imaginary  great  circles  of  the 
celestial  sphere  at  right  angles  to  each  other :  one,  called 
the  equinoctial  colure,  passes  through  the  celestial  poles 
and  the  equinoxes ;  the  other,  termed  the  solstitial  colure, 
passes  through  the  celestial  poles  and  the  solstitial 
points.  They  divide  the  ecliptic  into  the  four  seasons 
of  the  year.  Megrez  is  on  the  meridian  at  9  P.M., 
May  loth. 

The  star  'in  the  bottom  of  the  dipper,  toward  the 
handle,  is  called  Phad,  or  Gamma.  It  is  of  a  topaz- 
yellow  colour,  and  is  about  four  and  a  half  degrees 
from  Megrez. 

The  greenish- white  star  in  the  bottom  of  the  dipper, 
on  the  outer  edge,  about  eight  degrees  from  Phad,  is 
known  as  Merak  or  Beta.  It  is  a  star  of  the  sirian 
type,  and  is  also  a  spectroscopic  double.  A  few  degrees 
from  it  is  situated  the  so-called  Owl  Nebula  (Plate  IV.) 
the  largest  and  finest  of  the  planetary  nebulas. 

Dubhe  or  Alpha,  the  yellowish  star  on  the  farther 
side  of  the  rim,  five  degrees  from  Merak,  and  ten  from 
Megrez,  is  the  only  star  in  The  Dipper  that  is  of  the 
solar  type.  It  has  an  eleventh-magnitude  companion, 
and  is  the  nearer  of  the  "pointers"  to  the  pole  star. 
It  was  the  orientation  point  of  the  temple  of  Hathor  at 
Denderah.  The  four  stars,  Dubhe,  Merak,  Phad,  and 
Megrez,  form  the  bowl  of  the  dipper,  and  the  hind 
quarters  of  the  Bear. 

Almost  directly  overhead,   between  "The  Dipper'1 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  45 

and  the  "Sickle"  of  Leo,  and  about  fifteen  degrees 
apart,  are  the  three  plantigrade  paws  of  the  Bear.  The 
right  fore-paw  and  the  hind-paw  are  each  marked  by 
two  fairly  bright  stars;  while  a  similar  pair  nearly  in 
line  with  them  indicates  the  left  hind-paw.  The  larger 
star  in  the  right  hind-paw  is  of  importance  as  being 
the  first  binary  whose  orbit  was  computed.  The  head 
of  the  Bear  is  marked  by  a  curved  row  of  dim  stars  a 
few  degrees  beyond  the  bowl  of  the  dipper. 

Away  round  in  the  north-west  is  a  group  of  stars 
known  as  Cassiopeia  or  the  "Lady  in  the  Chair." 
It  is  a  companion  to  The  Dipper,  and  is  about  opposite 
to  it,  as  both  swing  round  the  axis  of  the  sky.  It  lies 
on  the  course  of  the  Milky  Way,  and  is  readily  recog- 
nised by  the  irregular  W- shaped  figure  formed  by  its 
five  chief  stars.  Along  with  Cepheus,  an  inconspicuous 
but  highly  interesting  group,  made  up  of  a  few  faint 
stars  arranged  somewhat  in  the  form  of  the  letter  K, 
and  the  long,  dim,  straggling  Camelopardalis,  it  will 
be  better  studied  at  another  season. 

Ursa  Minor 

(The  Lesser  Bear) 

Ursa  Minor,  the  Lesser  Bear,  is  a  small  constellation 
containing  the  north  pole  of  the  heavens,  around  which 
its  stars  apparently  revolve  from  east  to  west  every 
twenty-four  hours.  It  is  surrounded  by  Draco,  Camelo- 
pardalis, Cassiopeia,  and  Perseus,  and  contains  about 
thirty  stars,  two  of  which  are  of  the  second  magnitude, 
one  of  the  third,  and  a  few  of  the  fourth  and  fifth. 

Lowell  in  Prometheus  alludes  to  it  as 

The  Bear  that  prowled  all  night  about  the  fold 
Of  the  North  Star. 


46  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

In  the  earliest  ages,  it  was  differently  regarded  as 
the  "Little  Chariot,"  the  "Waggon  of  Joseph,"  and  the 
"Bear  that  David  slew."  By  the  Greeks  it  was  called 
"Phcenice,"  because  it  was  the  guide  of  the  Phoenicians 
during  their  excursions  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  to  the 
Romans  it  was  known  as  "  Cynosura,"  or  "  Dog's  Tail." 

The  seven  principal  stars  of  this  constellation  form  a 
half -sized  replica  of  The  Dipper  in  Ursa  Major,  and 
hence  are  commonly  called  the  Little  Dipper.  The 
handle,  however,  of  this  tiny  dipper  is  turned  in  the 
contrary  direction,  and  the  bowl  hangs  nearly  over  the 
star  Thuban  in  Draco,  a  second-magnitude  star  just 
above  the  handle  of  The  Dipper.  The  lucida  or  Alpha 
star  of  Ursa  Minor  is  a  standard  second-magnitude 
star  at  the  end  of  the  handle  of  the  Little  Dipper,  or 
the  end  of  the  tail  of  the  Lesser  Bear,  called  Polaris,  the 
north-polar  star,  the  best  known  and  most  practically 
useful  of  stellar  objects.  Its  position  in  the  sky,  about 
forty-two  degrees  from  the  horizon,  or  a  little  less  than 
half  way  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith,  is  pointed  out  by 
the  direction  of  the  two  "pointers"  Merak  and  Dubhe 
in  Ursa  Major.  Besides,  an  equilateral  triangle  having 
as  its  base  the  line  joining  either  Arcturus  and  Regulus 
(on  the  right),  or  Vega  and  Arcturus  (on  the  right),  will 
have  Polaris  near  its  apex.  Moreover,  any  pair  of 
"  simul-transit "  stars  are  of  service  as  pointers  to  the 
pole.  In  fact  the  two  "pointers"  in  Ursa  Major, 
already  referred  to,  are  merely  convenient  pairs  of 
"simul-transit"  stars,  just  as  are  Capella  and  Rigel, 
Pollux  and  Procyon,  or  Markab  and  Beta  Pegasi. 
Then,  too,  on  a  line  from  Polaris  to  Mizar,  about  a 
degree  and  a  fifth  from  the  former,  is  situated  the  true 
north  pole  of  the  heavens.  It  is  indicated  on  the  chart 
by  a  small  cross  near  to  Polaris. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  47 

Sir  Thomas  Browne,  in  his  Religio  Medici,  has  the 
following  quaint  reference  to  the  Pointers  and  Polaris: 

I  know  the  names,  and  somewhat  more  of  all  the  con- 
stellations  in    my  horizon;    yet   I   have   seen   a   prating  // 
mariner,  that  could  only  name  the  Pointers  and  the  North 
Star,  out-talk  me,  and   conceit  himself  a  whole  sphere 
above  me. 

s 

Polaris  is  a  white  or  yellowish-white  star  of  the 
sirian  type,  and  is  accompanied  by  a  faint,  but  not 
close,  ninth-magnitude  companion,  which  is  of  a  dull 
blue  colour,  and  is  sometimes  used  as  a  test  for  small 
telescopes.  The  primary  star  was  found  in  1899  to  be 
a  spectroscopic  binary.  Polaris  is  thus  a  triple  star 
worthy  of  remark,  and  the  three  bodies  of  which  it  is 
composed  revolve,  under  the  influence  of  their  mutual 
attraction,  about  each  other.  It  is  sixty-nine  and  a 
half  light  years  distant,  and  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion 
of  two  and  a  half  miles  a  second.  In  the  northern 
hemisphere  it  is  frequently  used  by  both  astronomers 
and  mariners  for  determining  latitude;  its  height  in  the 
sky  denoting  approximately  the  latitude  of  the  observer. 
Until  the  mariner's  compass  came  into  use,  it  was  the 
universal  guide  for  wanderers  both  by  land  and  sea. 

Bryant,  in  his  beautiful  Hymn  to  the  North  Star,  thus 
refers  to  it: 

on  thy  unaltering  blaze 
The  half-wrecked  mariner,  his  compass  lost, 
Fixes  his  steady  gaze, 

And  steers,  undoubting,  to  the  friendly  coast; 
And  they  who  stray  in  perilous  wastes  by  night, 
Are  glad  when  thou  dost   shine  to  guide  their  footsteps 

right. 


48  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  second  bright  star  is  Kochab  or  Beta  Ursas  Min- 
oris,  in  the  outer  side  of  the  bowl  of  the  little  dipper, 
or  the  left  shoulder  of  the  bear.  It  is  a  reddish-coloured 
second-magnitude  star,  of  the  solar  type,  about  as  bright 
as  Polaris.  It  is  situated  fifteen  degrees  from  the  pole, 
and  is  about  twenty-five  degrees  distant  from  Alcaid, 
and  twenty-four  degrees  from  Dubhe.  Its  nearest 
neighbour,  about  three  and  a  half  degrees  distant,  is  a 
wide  double,  situated  at  the  junction  of  the  bottom  of 
the  bowl  with  the  outer  side,  known  as  Gamma,  a  star  of 
the  third  magnitude .  Kochab  and  Gamma  are  frequently 
alluded  to  as  the  "Wardens"  or  " Guards"  of  the  Pole. 

Shakespeare,  in  Othello,  Act  II,  Scene  I,  thus  refers 
to  them: 

The  wind-shak'd  surge,  with  high  and  monstrous  mane, 
Seems  to  cast  water  on  the  burning  Bear, 
And  quench  the  guards  of  th'  ever-fixed  pole. 

The  star  Zeta,  at  the  root  of  the  tail  or  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  handle  with  the  bowl,  is  of  the  fourth  magni- 
tude, and  the  star  Eta,  at  the  back  part  of  the  bottom 
of  the  bowl,  opposite  Gamma,  is  of  the  fifth.  The 
four  stars  in  the  bowl,  namely,  Beta,  Gamma,  Zeta, 
and  Eta,  it  will  be  noticed,  are  respectively  of  the 
second,  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  magnitudes,  and  hence 
are  often  used  in  comparing  stellar  magnitudes.  The 
two  stars  in  the  curved-up  handle,  between  Polaris 
and  Zeta,  are  Delta,  a  greenish-tinged,  fourth-magnitude 
star,  and  a  faint  star  known  as  Epsilon. 

Leo 

(The  Lion) 

High  up,  near  the  zenith  is  the  constellation  Leo, 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  striking  constellations 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  49 

adorning  the  night-sky  of  spring.  It  is  about  the  size 
of  the  Big  Dipper,  and  is  readily  recognised  by  six 
of  its  principal  stars  which  form  the  upright  figure  of  a 
sickle,  with  its  handle  downward,  and  its  blade  turned 
toward  the  west.  It  is  easily  found  when  the  position 
of  the  Greater  Bear,  which  lies  parallel  to  it,  is  known : 

Neath  her  nind  feet  as  rushing  on  his  prey, 
The  lordly  Lion  greets  the  God  of  day. 

ARATUS. 

Leo  is  the  fifth  sign  in  order  of  the  zodiac,  and  the 
sixth  and  most  famous  of  the  zodiacal  constellations. 
It  contains  over  a  hundred  stars  visible  to  the  unaided 
eye,  as  well  as  a  large  number  of  "interesting  telescopic 
objects,  and  is  bounded  generally  by  the  constellations 
Leo  Minor,  Cancer,  and  Virgo.  It  is  represented  as  a 
crouching  lion  facing  westward,  the  stars  of  the  sickle, 
known  as  the  "Sickle  of  Leo,"  forming  the  forepart  of 
the  animal,  the  hinderpart  being  outlined  by  three 
bright  stars  which  form  a  triangle.  The  fore-paws  are 
drawn  up  to  the  breast,  and  are  represented  by  two 
faint  stars,  Psi  and  Omicron. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  Leo  was  called  one  of  "  Daniel's 
Lions,"  and  by  astrologers  was  known  as  the  "House 
of  Lions."  As  recorded  in  Genesis  xlix.,  9,  the  lion 
was  the  symbol  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  was  Judah's 
natal  sign. 

According  to  Greek  fable,  it  is  connected  with  the 
story  of  the  labours  of  Hercules,  and  is  represented  as 
the  gigantic  Lion — originally  from  the  moon — which 
infested  the  Nemaean  forests.  It  was  strangled  by 
Hercules,  after  his  massy  club  and  his  arrows  had 
proved  unavailing,  and  was  placed  by  Jupiter  among 
the  stars  in  commemoration  of  the  exploit  of  his  son. 

4 


50  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  principal  star  in  the  constellation  is  Regulus, 
or  Alpha  Leonis,  the  "little  king,"  a  brilliant  white 
star  of  the  sirian  type  and  of  the  first  magnitude.  It  is 
situated  at  the  lower  end  of  the  handle  of  the  sickle  or 
"reaping-hook, "  the  other  stars,  of  which,  successively, 
are,  Eta,  Gamma,  Zeta,  Mu,  and  Epsilon.  It  sparkles 
near  the  heart  of  Leo,  and  is  sometimes  called  "Cor 
Leonis'*  or  the  "Lion's  Heart."  It  is  about  half  a 
degree  north  of  the  ecliptic,  and  has  a  faint  eighth- 
magnitude  companion,  which,  as  seen  through  a  powerful 
field-glass,  is  of  a  deep  blue  colour.  It  is  about  ninety- 
nine  light  years  distant,  and  has  a  proper  or  cross  mo- 
tion of  twenty-two  miles  a  second. 

Regulus  has  been  a  famous  star  in  all  ages,  and  is 
one  of  the  so-called  "Lunar  Stars,"  much  used  in  navi- 
gation. It  is  of  great  repute  among  astrologers,  and 
has  always  been  looked  upon  as  a  fortunate  star.  It 
was  the  leader  of  the  four  celebrated  "Royal  Stars," 
or  "Four  Guardians  of  Heaven,"  and  along  with  Alde- 
baran,  Ant  ares,  and  Fomalhaut,  the  other  royal  stars 
of  the  ancient  Persian  monarchy,  watched  over  the 
four  great  districts  of  the  heavens.  It  is  visible  for 
about  eight  months  in  the  year,  and  comes  to  the 
meridian  at  9  P.M.  on  April  6th. 

The  sun  travels  through  Leo  from  August  7th  to 
September  I4th,  and  passes  close  to  Regulus  about 
August  2Oth,  while  the  moon  passes  near  the  latter 
every  month,  and  at  times  occults  it.  The  constella- 
tion is  best  seen  from  January  to  June. 

Denebola  or  Beta,  another  interesting  star  in  Leo, 
is  the  eastmost  star  in  the  small  triangle,  and  marks 
the  tuft  at  the  end  of  the  lion's  tail.  It  is  a  bluish 
second-magnitude  star  of  the  sirian  type,  almost  as 
bright  as  Regulus,  and  is  situated  about  twenty-five 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  51 

degrees  east  of  the  latter,  and  five  degrees  north  of  the 
faint  stars  that  form  the  head  of  Virgo.  It  is  over 
twenty-five  light  years  distant,  and  has  a  proper  or 
cross  motion  of  about  eleven  and  a  half  miles  a  second. 
In  its  immediate  vicinity  are  six  small  stars  called  the 
"Companions  of  Denebola,"  one  of  which  is  of  the 
sixth  magnitude  and  one  of  the  eighth.  It  is  five 
degrees  west  of  the  equinoctial  colure,  and  comes  to 
the  meridian  at  9  P.M.  on  May  3d. 

In  astrology  it  was  regarded  as  unlucky,  portending 
misfortune  and  disgrace  to  all  born  under  its  influence. 

Denebola  and  Zosma  form  with  Theta,  a  conspicuous 
triangle,  and  with  Regulus  and  Gamma  a  large  tra- 
pezium. Along  with  Arcturus  in  Bootes,  Cor  Caroli  in 
Canes  Venatici,  and  Spica  in  Virgo,  it  forms  a  great 
rhombus,  the  so-called  "Diamond  of  Virgo,"  a  striking 
figure  almost  fifty  degrees  long. 

The  bright  star  in  the  lion's  shoulder  and  the  lowest 
star  in  the  blade  of  the  sickle,  is  Algieba  or  Gamma, 
the  second  star  above  Regulus,  and  one  of  the  most 
attractive  stars  in  the  northern  heavens.  It  is  a  binary, 
or  physical  double,  with  a  period,  according  to  Doberck, 
of  about  four  hundred  and  three  years.  The  larger 
star  is  of  a  bright  orange  colour,  and  of  the  second 
magnitude,  while  the  companion  star  is  of  a  greenish- 
yellow  hue,  and  of  about  the  fourth  magnitude.  It  is 
a  star  of  the  solar  type,  and  is  optically  double  even 
with  an  opera-glass.  The  radiant  point  of  the  famous 
Leonid  meteors  is  within  the  curve  of  the  blade  of  the 
sickle,  near  Gamma. 

Zosma  or  Delta,  a  coarsely  triple  star  of  the  sirian 
type,  lies  on  the  lion's  back,  near  the  tail.  It  is  of  a 
pale  yellow  colour,  and  of  the  third  magnitude.  Five 
degrees  directly  south  of  it  is  Theta,  a  third-magnitude 


52  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

star  situated  in  the  thigh  of  the  lion.  South  of  Zosma 
and  Theta,  and  almost  in  a  straight  line  with  them,  are 
a  few  small  stars  which  mark  one  of  the  hind  legs. 
Seven  degrees  south-west  of  Denebola,  and  in  the  lion's 
flank,  is  a  beautiful  binary  star,  Iota.  The  larger  star 
of  the  pair  is  of  a  lemon-yellow  colour,  and  of  the  fourth 
magnitude,  while  the  companion  star  is  of  the  eighth 
magnitude,  and  of  a  light  blue  shade. 

Five  degrees  north  of  Regulus  is  a  fourth-magnitude 
star  Eta,  which  forms  with  it  the  handle  of  the  sickle. 
The  third-magnitude  star  in  the  mane  of  the  neck,  and 
in  the  curve  of  the  sickle,  next  to  Gamma,  is  Zeta.  It 
has  three  small  companion  stars,  visible  with  a  good 
opera-glass.  Epsilon,  a  third-magnitude  star  in  the 
cheek  of  the  lion,  has  two  seventh-magnitude  com- 
panions, forming  with  it  a  beautiful  little  triangle.  A 
little  west  of  Epsilon,  is  Lambda,  a  fourth-magnitude 
star  situated  in  the  lion's  open  jaws. 

The  very  interesting  variable  star,  lettered  R,  in 
the  right  foreleg  of  Leo,  is  remarkable  for  its  blood-red 
appearance,  and  has  a  period  of  about  three  hundred 
and  twelve  days.  When  at  its  maximum  of  radiance 
its  light  is  that  of  a  fifth-magnitude  star,  its  minimum 
being  reached  at  about  the  tenth  magnitude.  It  will 
be  at  its  maximum  about  November  21,  1914. 

Leo  Minor 

(The  Lesser  Lion) 

Leo  Minor,  the  Lesser  Lion,  is  a  small  constellation 
formed  by  Hevelius,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  out  of  the  unformed  stars  scattered  between 
Leo  on  the  south  and  Ursa  Major  on  the  north.  It 
contains  no  stars  greater  than  the  fourth  magnitude, 
and  to  the  Arabians  was  known  as  the  Gazelle. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  53 

Hydra 

(The  Water-Serpent) 

Hydra,  sometimes  called  the  Water-Snake,  or  the 
Water-Serpent,  is  a  great  sinuous  constellation,  wind- 
ing eastward  and  southward  below  Leo,  Crater,  Corvus, 
and  Virgo,  as  far  as  Libra.  It  is  over  one  hundred 
degrees  in  length,  stretching  across  nearly  one-third 
the  circumference  of  the  heavens.  The  head  of  the 
sparkling  reptile  is  under  the  Beehive  cluster  in  Cancer, 
just  north  of  the  celestial  equator,  and  its  tail  ends  near 
the  bright  star  Gamma  in  the  uplifted  claw  of  Scorpio. 

The  Water-Serpent's  gleaming  bend. 

ARATUS. 

In  Greek  mythology,  Hydra  was  the  dreadful  mon- 
ster which  infested  the  marshes  of  Lerna,  and  to  destroy 
which  was  the  second  labour  of  Hercules.  It  is  re- 
lated that  the  snake  had  a  hundred  heads,  and  that  as 
soon  as  one  was  cut  off,  two  immediately  grew  in  its 
place,  unless  the  wound  was  seared  with  a  hot  iron. 
Hercules,  assisted  by  his  faithful  nephew  lolaus,  who 
applied  a  hot  iron  to  the  stumps  as  fast  as  the  head  was 
clubbed  off,  easily  effected  its  destruction,  burying  the 
centre  head,  which  was  said  to  be  immortal,  under  a 
rock. 

The  head  of  Hydra  faces  westward  and  may  be  dis- 
tinguished by  five  stars,  which  form  a  rhomboidal 
figure,  two  of  the  stars,  namely,  Zeta  and  Epsilon, 
being  of  the  third  magnitude,  and  Delta  of  the  fourth. 
Epsilon  is  a  remarkably  fine  double,  for  a  three-inch 
telescope;  one  component  being  yellow  and  of  the 
third  magnitude,  the  other  blue  and  of  the  eighth 
magnitude.  When  Hydra's  head  is  on  the  meridian, 


54  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

its  other  extremity,  marked  by  two  fifth-magnitude 
stars,  is  many  degrees  below  the  eastern  horizon. 

The  principal  star  in  the  constellation  is  Alphard  or 
Alpha.  It  is  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  serpent,  and 
is  known  sometimes  as  Cor  Hydrse.  It  is  a  second- 
magnitude  star  of  an  orange-yellow  colour  and  twinkles 
sluggishly.  It  received  its  Arabic  name  Alphard, 
meaning  the  "Solitary  One,"  from  its  occupying  a 
district  in  which  there  are  no  other  bright  stars.  Its 
position  in  the  heavens  is  easily  detected,  first  by  its 
isolated  position,  and  secondly  by  an  imaginary  line 
drawn  southward  through  Gamma  Leonis  and  Regulus, 
to  a  point  about  twenty-five  degrees  distant  from  the 
latter.  Besides,  Castor  and  Pollux  nearly  point  south 
to  it.  It  comes  to  the  meridian  at  9  P.M.  on  March 
26th. 

The  fifty-odd  remaining  stars  in  the  vast  folds  of  this 
great  wriggling  serpent,  range  from  the  third  to  the 
fifth  magnitude  and  under,  many  of  them  being  ar- 
ranged in  striking  pairs,  but  otherwise  unimportant. 

Over  in  the  south-east,  resting  on  the  back  of  Hydra, 
may  be  seen  the  quadrilateral  figure  of  the  constellation 
Corvus,  and  about  fifteen  degrees  west  of  it,  the  over- 
turned cup  of  the  constellation  Crater,  while  low  down 
in  the  south-west,  above  Argo  Navis,  lies  the  unim- 
portant southern  constellation  Antlia,  the  Air-Pump. 

Corvus 

(The  Crow) 

Corvus,  the  Crow  or  "Fig  Bird,"  is  a  small  constel- 
lation containing  about  ten  stars  visible  to  the  unas- 
sisted eye.  It  can  be  readily  recognised  by  four  bright 
stars,  which  form  an  irregular  quadrilateral,  in  a  section 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  55 

not  very  rich  in  large  stars.  Epsilon,  the  faintest  of 
the  four,  the  one  situated  in  the  neck  of  the  crow,  and 
in  the  lower  right-hand  corner  of  the  figure,  is  of  the 
third  magnitude.  Gienah,  or  Gamma,  in  the  west  wing 
of  the  crow,  and  in  the  upper  right-hand  corner  of  the 
figure,  is  now  the  brightest  star  in  the  constellation. 
It  is  of  the  second  magnitude,  and  lies  only  one  degree 
east  of  the  equinoctial  colure. 

^JBeta^  about  as  bright  as  Gienah,  is  on  the  foot  of 
the  crow,  and  in  the  lower  left-hand  corner  of  the 
figure,  but,  like  Epsilon,  has  no  specific  name.  Algorab, 
or  Delta,  the  star  in  the  east  wing  of  the  crow,  and  in 
the  upper  left-hand  corner  of  the  figure,  is  a  beautiful 
double  star  of  the  second  magnitude.  The  lowest 
star,  Al  Chiba,  or  Alpha,  in  the  beak  of  the  crow — which 
is  depicted  as  pecking  at  Hydra — and  once  the  leader 
of  the  constellation,  is  now  only  of  the  fourth  magnitude. 
According  to  Greek  fable,  the  crow  was  placed  among 
the  stars  by  Apollo,  as  a  reward  for  detective  services. 
Having  become  jealous  of  Coronis,  the  beautiful  daugh- 
ter of  Phlegyas,  and  mother  of  ^Esculapius,  Apollo,  it 
is  related,  sent  a  crow  to  watch  her.  The  intimacy  of 
Coronis  with  Ischys,  the  Thessalian,  as  reported  by 
the  crow,  so  enraged  Apollo,  that 

the  colour  left  his  look, 

The  wreath  his  head,  the  harp  his  hand  forsook: 
The  silver  bow  and  feathered  shafts  he  took, 
And  lodged  an  arrow  in  the  tender  breast, 
That  had  so  often  to  his  own  been  prest. 

Another  legend,  mentioned  by  Allen,  relates  that 
the  crow,  being  sent  by  Apollo  with  a  cup  to  bring  some 
water  for  a  sacrifice  to  Jupiter,  loitered  at  a  fig-tree 
till  the  fruit  became  ripe,  and  then  returned  to  the  god 


56  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

with  a  water-snake  in  his  claws,  and  a  lie  on  his  tongue, 
alleging  the  snake  to  have  been  the  cause  of  his  delay. 
In  punishment  for  his  dilatoriness  and  untruthfulness 
he  was  forever  fixed  in  the  sky  with  the  Cup  and  the 
Snake,  the  latter  being  charged  never  to  allow  him  to 
drink. 

The  crow,  it  is  also  said,  was  once  of  the  purest  white, 
but  was  changed,  as  a  punishment  for  tale-bearing,  to 
its  present  sable  hue: 

The  raven  once  in  snowy  plumes  was  drest, 

White  as  the  whitest  dove's  unsullied  breast, 

His  tongue,  his  prating  tongue,  had  changed  him  quite, 

To  sooty  blackness  from  the  purest  white. 

Corvus  comes  to  the  meridian  about  9  P.M.  on  May 
loth. 

v  • 

Crater 

(The  Cup) 

Like  Gorvus,  Crater,  the  Cup,  or  the  "Mixing  Bowl," 
rests  on  the  back  of  the  great  water-snake,  Hydra.  It 
is  marked  by  seven  stars  immediately  west  of  Corvus 
and  south  of  Virgo,  which  form  a  somewhat  striking 
bowl-shaped  figure,  in  an  inclined  position,  with  the 
open  part  towards  the  east.  It  is  a  rather  inconspicu- 
ous constellation,  one  of  its  stars,  Delta,  being  of  the 
third  magnitude,  Alkes  and  three  others  of  the  fourth, 
and  two  of  the  fifth. 

Alkes,  or  Alpha,  an  orange-tinted  star,  formerly  the 
brightest  star  in  the  constellation,  but  now  much  fainter 
than  Delta,  is  situated  in  the  bottom  of  the  cup,  and 
is  common  to  both  Hydra  and  Crater. 

The  Greeks  seem  to  have  looked  upon  Crater  as  the 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  57 

" Goblet    of  Apollo,"    but    according    to    Manilius    it 
belonged  to  Bacchus: 

Next  flies  the  Crow,  and  next  the  generous  Bowl 
Of  Bacchus  flows,  and  cheers  the  thirsty  pole. 

Then,  too,  it  has  been  differently  known  as  the  cup 
of  Hercules,  the  cup  of  Achilles,  and  the  cup  of  Medea ; 
while  later  it  has  been  identified  with  the  cup  that 
was  found  in  Benjamin's  sack,  with  the  wine-cup  of 
Noah,  and  even  with  a  vial  of  wrath  of  the  Revelation. 
Another  legend  connects  it  with  the  Soma  cup  of 
prehistoric  India. 

Allen  states  that  there  is  an  ancient  vase  in  the  War- 
wick collection  on  which  are  inscribed  the  following  lines : 

Wise  ancients  knew  when  Crater  rose  in  sight, 
Nile's  fertile  deluge  had  attained  its  height. 

Crater's  stars  lie  directly  south  of  the  hinder-feet 
of  Leo,  and  come  to  the  meridian  at  9  P.M.  on  April  26th. 

Argo  Navis 

(The  Ship  Argo) 

Lying  largely  in  the  Milky  Way,  south  of  Hydra 
and  Monoceros,  and  south-east  of  Canis  Major,  is  the 
great  constellation  Argo  Navis,  the  ship  Argo,  the  most 
important  part  of  which,  for  observation,  is  unfortu- 
nately too  far  south,  as  only  a  few  stars  in  the  stern  of 
the  ship  are  visible  in  this  latitude.  According  to 
Greek  fable  it  represents  the  famous  ship  built  by  Argo 
about  936  B.C.,  in  which  Jason  and  his  fifty-four  notable 
companions  went  to  Colchis  in  search  of  the  Golden 
Fleece.  It  was  the  first  long  vessel  ever  built,  and  is 
believed  by  some  to  be  no  other  than  the  Ark  of  Noah. 


58  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Wordsworth  thus  refers  to  this  constellation: 

When  the  first  Ship  sailed  for  the  Golden  Fleece — 

Argo,  exalted  for  that  daring  feat 

To  fix  in  heaven  her  shape  distinct  with  stars. 

And  Aratus  wrote  of  its  position: 

Against  the  tail  of  the  Great  Dog  is  dragged 
Sternward  the  Argo. 

The  leading  star  of  the  constellation  is  a  star  of 
immense  magnitude,  called  Canopus,  after  one  of  its 
pilots.  It  is  situated  in  the  keel  of  the  ship,  and  is  a 
bluish-white  star  of  the  sirian  type.  It  is  second  only 
to  Sirius  in  brilliancy,  having  a  magnitude  of  —0.9.  It 
can  be  seen  from  the  Gulf.  States,  but  is  not  visible  in 
this  latitude.  It  is  at  least  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  light  years  distant,  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of 
eight  and  a  half  miles  a  second,  and  is  receding  from 
the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  over  twelve  miles  a 
second.  The  notable  second-magnitude  star,  Gamma, 
is  said  to  be  the  only  really  bright  star  yielding  the 
peculiar  Wolf -Ray  et  type  of  spectrum — that  is,  a 
spectrum  characterised  by  bright  instead  of  dark  lines, 
and  also  showing  dark  bands,  the  bright  lines  signifying 
that  the  atmospheric  vapours  producing  them  are  at  a 
higher  temperature  than  the  body  of  the  star.  The 
so-called  Wolf-Rayet  stars,  it  may  be  stated,  are  few 
in  number,  probably  not  over  one  hundred,  and  are  all 
found  in  or  very  near  the  Milky  Way,  or  in  the  Magel- 
lanic  Clouds. 

The  constellation  Argo  contains  a  wonderful,  irregu- 
larly variable  star  named  Eta,  which  is  surrounded 
by  the  great  "Key-hole  Nebula  in  Argus,"  a  variable 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  59 

nebula  situated  in  one  of  the  most  brilliant  portions  of 
the  Milky  Way. 

Over  in  the  west  the  magnificent  Orion,  the  interest- 
ing Taurus  with  its  celebrated  clusters  the  Hyades  and 
Pleiades,  the  bright  Twins,  the  brilliant  Dog  Stars,  and 
the  skilful  Charioteer,  are  now  declining  rapidly  toward 
the  horizon,  and  will  be  described  later,  being  more 
favourably  situated  in  the  chart  of  the  winter  night 
sky.  The  winter  branch  of  the  Milky  Way,  too,  is 
swinging  closer  each  night  to  the  western  horizon,  while 
the  northern  end  of  the  summer  branch  is  just  appear- 
ing in  the  north-east.  Besides,  what  may  be  of  more 
than  passing  interest  to  the  observer,  is  a  rather  barren 
stretch  of  sky,  separating  the  winter  stars  from  the 
stars  of  spring,  the  "pointers"  in  Ursa  Major  and  the 
stars  in  the  triangle  of  Leo  being  the  only  bright  stars 
in  the  great  belt  extending  from  the  celestial  pole  to 
the  southern  limits  of  vision. 

Of  the  on-coming  constellations,  the  great  Harvest 
constellation,  Virgo,  with  its  beautiful  flushed-white 
star  Spica,  to  the  east,  the  large  Bootes,  with  its  bril- 
liant orange-tinted  Arcturus,  in  the  north-east,  and 
the  constellation  Lyra,  the  Lyre,  with  its  blazing  blue 
star  Vega,  to  the  north,  are  by  far  the  most  conspicuous. 

Virgo 

(The  Virgin) 

Virgo,  the  Virgin,  the  sixth  sign  and  seventh  constel- 
lation of  the  zodiac,  lies  close  to  the  ecliptic,  about  half 
north  and  half  south  of  the  equator,  and  is  bounded 
on  the  east  by  Libra,  on  the  west  by  Leo,  on  the  north 
by  Bootes  and  Coma  Berenices,  and  on  the  south  by 
Corvus,  Crater,  and  Hydra.  It  is  a  very  old  and  noble 


6o  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

constellation  of  great  dimensions  and  replete  with 
astronomical  interest.  The  sun  occupies  it  for  forty- 
five  days,  passing  through  it  from  September  I4th  to 
October  29th.  All  told,  it  contains  one  hundred  stars 
visible  to  the  naked  eye,  including  one  of  the  first 
magnitude,  six  of  the  third,  and  a  number  of  the  fourth, 
fifth,  and  sixth. 

The  principal  stars  admit  of  being  linked  up  so  as 
to  form  the  outline  of  the  flowing  robe  of  a  virgin.  In 
most  representations  of  Virgo,  she  appears  as  a  beau- 
tiful maiden  with  folded  wings  springing  from  her 
shoulders,  holding  in  her  left  hand  a  spear  of  wheat  or 
an  ear  of  corn,  defined  in  the  heavens  by  the  position 
of  the  fascinating  star  Spica. 

According  to  Hesiod,  Virgo  was  Astrsea,  the  daughter 
of  Jupiter  and  Themis,  and  the  goddess  of  justice.  In 
the  Golden  Age,  when  the  gods  dwelt  upon  the  earth, 
Astraea  ruled  the  world,  and  was  especially  reverenced 
by  men  for  her  pure  life  and  kindly  deeds.  But  becom- 
ing offended  at  the  wickedness  and  impiety  of  mankind 
during  the  Brazen  and  Iron  Ages  of  the  world,  she 
returned  to  heaven.  The  last  of  the  immortals  to 
leave  the  earth,  she 

Winged  her  flight  to  heaven;  and  fixed 

Her  station  in  that  region 

Where  still  by  night  is  seen 

The  Virgin  goddess  near  to  bright  Bootes. 

ARATUS. 

In  Egyptian  mythology,  Virgo  was  associated  with 
Isis,  and  it  was  said  that  as  she  fled  to  escape  the  dread- 
ful giant  Typhon,  she  dropped  one  of  the  three  ripened 
ears  of  corn  she  held  in  her  hand,  which  became  scat- 
tered over  the  heavens  and  formed  the  Milky  Way. 


f 

The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  61 

Another,  a  Greek  fable,  identified  Virgo  with  Erigone, 
the  daughter  of  Icarius,  an  Athenian,  who  was  murdered 
by  some  shepherds  whom  he  had  intoxicated  with  wine. 
Directed  by  her  faithful  dog  Maera  to  the  place  where 
her  father  was  slain,  overcome  with  grief,  she  hung 
herself. 

Thus  once  in  Marathon's  impervious  wood, 
Erigone  beside  her  father  stood, 
When  hastening  to  discharge  her  pious  vows, 
She  loos'd  the  knot  and  cull'd  the  strongest  boughs. 

STATIUS. 

Virgo  has  also  been  associated  with  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  with  Ruth  gleaning  in  the  fields  of  Boaz. 

According  to  the  late  Andrew  Lang,  the  old  custom, 
still  seen  in  some  parts  of  England  and  Scotland,  of 
escorting  with  music  from  the  field,  the  "Kern-baby," 
made  up  of  the  last  gleanings  of  the  harvest,  was  derived 
from  the  myths  relating  to  Virgo. 

Astrologically,  Virgo  was  a  feminine  sign,  and  was 
looked  upon  as  generally  unfortunate. 

The  most  noted  star  in  the  constellation  is  the  beau- 
tiful, white,  first-magnitude  star  Spica,  or  Alpha  Virginis, 
glistening  in  the  spear  of  wheat  or  the  ear  of  corn  which 
the  virgin  holds  in  her  left  hand.  It  rises  a  very  little 
south  of  the  exact  eastern  point  on  the  horizon,  and 
may  be  known  by  its  solitary  splendour,  there  being  no 
star  at  all  approaching  it  in  brightness  within  thirty 
degrees  of  it.  It  can  be  found  by  extending  an  imagi- 
nary line  from  the  end  of  the  handle  of  The  Dipper 
through  Arcturus,  to  about  an  equal  distance  beyond  it. 
And  again,  an  imaginary  line  drawn  from  Polaris 
through  Mizar,  the  middle  star  in  the  handle  of  the 


62  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

big  dipper,  will,  if  extended  about  sixty-five  degrees, 
pass  through  Spica. 

Spica  belongs  to  the  sirian  type  of  suns,  being  young 
in  the  order  of  evolution,  and  is  receding  from  the  solar 
system  at  the  rate  of  over  four  thousand  miles  an  hour. 
Its  actual  magnitude  is  very  great,  and  it  exceeds  the 
sun  probably  hundreds  of  times  in  intrinsic  brightness. 
According  to  spectroscopic  and  also  to  more  recent 
spectro-photographic  investigations,  it  is  a  spectro- 
scopic binary,  its  obscure  companion  star  being  of  the 
tenth  magnitude  and  bluish  in  colour.  The  two 
revolving  bodies  are  said  to  complete  a  revolution  in 
the  remarkably  short  period  of  four  days.  Spica  takes 
five  hours  and  twenty-five  minutes  to  reach  the  me- 
ridian, when  it  is  somewhat  less  than  half-way  up  from 
the  southern  horizon.  It  lies  within  the  moon's  path, 
and  is  one  of  the  stars  from  which  the  moon's  distance 
is  taken  for  determining  the  longitude  at  sea.  It 
culminates  at  9  P.M.  on  May  27th. 

The  star  Porrima,  or  Gamma,  a  third-magnitude  star 
situated  on  the  girdle  near  the  left  side,  about  ten 
degrees  north  of  Spica,  was  one  of  the  first  binaries  to 
be  discovered.  It  is  an  interesting  double  star,  and  a 
fine  object  for  a  small  telescope.  The  two  components 
are  about  equal  in  magnitude,  and  are  of  a  pale  yellow 
colour.  They  have  a  period  of  revolution  around  a 
common  centre  of  gravity,  estimated  at  about  one 
hundred  and  eighty  years.  Gamma  is  fifty-six  light 
years  distant,  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  about 
twenty-eight  miles  a  second,  and  is  approaching  the 
solar  system  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  miles  a  second.  It 
comes  to  the  meridian  at  9  P.M.  on  May  lyth. 

Epsilon,  called  also  "Vindemiatrix,"  signifying 
"  grape-gatherer,"  is  a  bright  yellow  star  of  the  third 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  63 

magnitude,  in  the  right  arm,  or  northern  wing,  about 
midway  between  Spica  and  the  delicate  cluster  of  stars 
which  forms  the  "Maiden's  Hair,"  or  Coma  Berenices. 
It  was  known  to  the  Arabs  as  the  "Forerunner  of  the 
Vintage/'  because  its  heliacal  rising  was  the  herald  of 
the  vintage  time.  It  has  a  minute  distant  companion 
star,  of  a  deep  red  colour. 

Zavijava,  or  Beta,  a  third- magnitude  star  below 
Denebola,  marks  the  top  of  the  left  wing,  while  Zaniah, 
or  Eta,  also  of  the  third  magnitude,  is  in  the  heart, 
about  five  degrees  west  of  Gamma.  The  autumnal 
equinox,  or  the  place  where  the  sun  crosses  the  celestial 
equator  on  his  southerly  journey  about  the  23d  of 
September,  is  situated  nearly  between  the  stars  Eta  and 
Beta.  The  stars  Delta  and  Zeta  of  the  third  magni- 
tude, and  Theta,  a  double  star  of  the  fourth,  along 
with  a  number  of  smaller  stars,  are  dotted  over  the 
maiden's  flowing  robe.  Six  stars  of  from  the  fourth  to 
the  sixth  magnitude  are  in  the  head  of  the  Virgin,  and 
three,  namely,  Lambda,  Iota,  and  Pi,  are  in  the  feet. 
The  stars  Zeta  and  Gamma  form  with  Spica  a  handsome 
triangle. 

The  space  marked  out  by  the  set  of  five  stars,  Beta, 
Eta,  Gamma,  Delta,  and  Epsilon,  has  been  called  the 
"  Field  of  the  Nebulae,"  on  account  of  the  great  number 
of  nebulae  found  in  this  region.  To  the  Arabs,  the 
cup-shaped  figure  formed  by  these  stars  was  known  as 
"The  Retreat  of  the  Howling  Dogs"  (Canes  Venatici). 

Cancer 
(The  Crab) 

Above  the  head  of  Hydra,  and  between  Leo  and 
Gemini,  lies  Cancer,  the  Crab,  the  smallest  and  least 


64  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

conspicuous  of  all  the  zodiacal  constellations.  It  is 
a  very  ancient  constellation,  and  is  important  mainly 
from  its  position  in  the  zodiac. 

Dante,  alluding  to  its  faintness  and  high  position 
in  the  heavens,  wrote  in  the  Paradiso  (Longfellow's 
tr.): 

Thereafterward,  a  light  among  them  brightened, 
So  that,  if  Cancer  one  such  crystal  had, 
Winter  would  have  a  month  of  one  sole  day. 

Cancer's  principal  stars,  none  of  which  are  brighter 
than  the  fourth  magnitude,  form  an  inverted  Y.  The 
total  length  of  the  A  is  about  twenty  degrees.  A  pair  of 
the  stars,  Gamma  and  Delta,  have  been  known  from 
time  immemorial  as  the  "twin  Asses,"  or  the  "Aselli." 
Gamma,  or  the  Asellus  Borealis,  and  Delta,  or  the  Asellus 
Australis,  stand  respectively  north  and  south  of  their 
Manger,  a  famous  naked-eye  cluster  of  small  stars 
called  "Praesepe."  Delta,  the  southern  Asellus,  a 
delicate  double  star,  is  situated  in  the  line  of  the 
ecliptic. 

The  historic  cluster  Praesepe,  the  "Beehive,"  or  the 
celestial  weather-glass,  in  the  breast  of  the  sprawling 
crab,  about  ten  degrees  south  of  Pollux,  is  the  most 
noticeable  and  interesting  feature  of  Cancer.  It  lies 
nearly  between  the  "Aselli,"  a  little  to  the  west,  and 
on  very  clear  nights,  when  the  moon  is  absent,  is  visible 
to  the  naked  eye  as  a  little  faint  cloud,  which  a  large 
opera-glass  or  a  small  telescope  will  easily  resolve  into 
an  aggregation  of  small  stars.  It  is  of  about  the  same 
size  as  the  Pleiades,  and  is  composed  of  three  hundred 
and  sixty-three  stars.  It  has  often  been  mistaken  by 
amateur  observers  for  a  comet. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  65 

Like  a  little  mist, 

Far  north  in  Cancer's  territory,  it  floats. 
Its  confines  are  two  faintly  glimmering  stars; 
These  are  two  Asses  that  a  Manger  parts. 

ARATUS. 

In  ancient  times  Praesepe,  or  the  Manger,  was  regarded 
in  the  light  somewhat  of  a  weather-guide. 

Pliny  thus  refers  to  it:  "If  Praesepe  is  not  visible  in 
a  clear  sky,  it  is  a  presage  of  a  violent  storm. " 

And  Aratus  in  Prognostica  wrote: 

A  murky  Manger  with  both  stars 
Shining  unaltered,  is  a  sign  of  rain. 

According  to  Macrobius,  the  name  Cancer  was 
selected  by  the  Chaldeans  to  represent  this  constella- 
tion, because  the  crab,  being  an  animal  that  walks 
backward  or  obliquely,  well  typified  the  sun's  apparent 
retrograde  movement  when  it  was  in  this  part  of  the 
zodiac. 

I  was  born,  sir,  when  the  Crab  was  ascending, 
And  my  affairs  go  backward. 

CONGREVE. 

According  to  Greek  legend,  Cancer  represents  the 
gigantic  sea-crab  that  came  to  the  assistance  of  the 
water-snake,  and  seized  the  foot  of  Hercules,  as  he 
was  fighting  with  Hydra  in  the  Lernaean  marshes. 
The  hero  crushed  the  reptile  under  his  heel  and  slew 
it,  whereupon  Juno,  in  gratitude  for  the  offered  service, 
importuned  Jupiter  to  place  the  crab  among  the  con- 
stellations. 

Another  legend  relates  that  Bacchus,  while  on  the 
way  to  the  temple  of  Jove,  came  to  a  great  marsh,  over 

5 


66  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

which  he  was  carried  by  an  ass,  one  of  two  near-by  at 
the  time.  In  return  for  this  gracious  service,  he  trans- 
formed both  creatures  into  stars,  and  placed  them  in 
the  heavens,  where  they  have  remained  as  the  "twin 
Asses"  to  this  day. 

In  astrology  Cancer  was  known  as  a  dark  sign,  and 
was  most  unfavourably  regarded.  The  Aselli  were 
portents  of  violent  death  to  such  as  came  under  their 
influence,  while  Praesepe,  or  the  Beehive,  like  all 
clusters,  threatened  mischief  and  blindness.  To  the 
Chaldeans,  Cancer  or  rather  Prsesepe  was  known 
as  the  "Gate  of  Men,"  the  region  of  the  stars 
through  which,  when  human  beings  were  born,  the 
souls  that  were  to  animate  their  bodies  descended 
from  heaven  to  earth. 

The  star  Acubens,  or  Alpha  Cancri,  is  a  double  star 
of  the  fourth  magnitude  situated  in  the  south-eastern 
claw,  with  two  very  small  stars  near  it.  It  comes  to 
the  meridian  at  9  P.M.  on  March  i8th.  Beta,  also  a 
fourth-magnitude  star,  is  in  the  south-western  claw, 
midway  between  Acubens  and  the  bright  star 
Procyon  in  the  Lesser  Dog.  Zeta  Cancri  is  a  fine 
quadruple  star  near  the  hind  claws  of  the  crab, 
and  is  one  of  the  most  famous  of  stellar  systems. 
Seeliger  of  Munich,  who  has  given  this  system  much 
study,  believes  that  three  bright  stars  in  it — of  the 
fifth- and- a -half,  sixth,  and  sixth -and- a- half  mag- 
nitudes respectively — revolve  round  a  dark  body, 
apparently  the  most  massive  of  the  four.  The  star 
Iota  is  a  pretty  double,  formed  by  a  yellow  star  of 
the  fourth  magnitude  and  a  companion  of  the  sixth 
magnitude. 

The  sun  is  travelling  through  the  constellation  from 
July  1 8th  to  August  7th. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  67 

Coma  Berenices 

(Berenice's  Hair) 

Coma  Berenices,  "Chioma  di  Berenice,"  or  Berenice's 
Hair,  is  a  beautiful  little  constellation  lying  north-east 
of  Denebola,  midway  between  it  and  Cor  Caroli.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  fairy-like  objects  in  the  sky,  and 
contains  about  ninety  stars,  only  three  of  which  are  as 
bright  as  the  fourth  magnitude.  It  is  situated  at  the 
northern  pole  of  the  Milky  Way,  and  contains  many 
small  nebulae,  also  a  number  of  double  stars  with  lilac- 
coloured  companions.  The  most  crowded  part,  a  deli- 
cate, irregular  cluster  of  very  faint  stars,  visible  to 
the  naked  eye  as  a  glimmering  spot,  is  a  pretty  sight 
in  an  opera-glass. 

With  marked  appropriateness  does  The  Poet  at  the 
Breakfast  Table  allude  to 

The  spangled  stream  of  Berenice's  hair. 
Bryant,  too,  in  The  Constellations,  notices 

The  streaming  tresses  of  the  Egyptian  queen. 

In  the  mythological  history  of  Coma  Berenices,  it  is 
related  that  when  Ptolemy  Soter,  or  Euergetes,  one  of 
the  kings  of  Egypt,  started  on  a  dangerous  expedition 
against  the  Assyrians,  Queen  Berenice  vowed  to  con- 
secrate her  fine  head  of  hair  to  the  temple  of  Venus, 
in  case  he  returned  safely.  On  his  successful  return 
she  fulfilled  her  vow,  and  Jupiter  placed  the  shining 
"  tresses  "  among  the  stars. 

According  to  Eratosthenes,  this  constellation  has 
also  been  identified  with  the  hair  of  Ariadne. 

Dr.  Seiss  claimed  that  it  was  vertically  overhead  at 


68  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Jerusalem  on  the  25th  of  December  at  the  time  of  Christ's 
birth,  and  associated  it  with  the  Star  of  the  Magi. 

Canes  Venatici 

(The  Hunting  Dogs) 

Canes  Venatici,  or  the  Hunting  Dogs,  is  an  interesting 
modern  constellation  formed  by  Hevelius  in  the  I7th 
century,  out  of  the  unformed  stars  scattered  between 
Coma  Berenices,  Bootes,  and  the  Greater  Bear.  Its 
stars,  one  of  which  is  of  about  the  second  magnitude, 
one  of  the  fourth,  and  a  number  of  the  fifth,  are  sup- 
posed to  represent  a  pair  of  hunting  dogs  or  hounds, 
which,  held  in  leash  by  Bootes,  are  pursuing  the  great 
Bear  continually  round  the  pole. 

Bootes  hath  unleash 'd  his  fiery  hounds. 

OWEN  MEREDITH. 

.  The  northern  dog  is  named  Asterion,  and  the  southern 
one,  Chara.  In  the  neck  of  the  latter  is  situated  the 
beautiful  Cor  Caroli,  or  "Charles's  Heart,"  a  white  star 
of  about  the  second  magnitude.  It  is  the  leading  star 
of  the  constellation,  and  was  named  Cor  Caroli  by 
Halle}'',  the  Astronomer  Royal,  at  the  suggestion  of 
Sir  Charles  Scarborough,  the  Court  physician,  in 
memory  of  Charles  I. 

Cor  Caroli  is  a  wide  double  star,  having  a  sixth-magni- 
tude companion  of  a  pale  lilac  colour,  and  is  an  easy 
object  for  very  small  instruments.  It  can  be  readily 
found  by  drawing  an  imaginary  line  from  Polaris 
through  Alioth  in  Ursa  Major,  which  will  lead  directly 
to  it.  It  forms  an  equilateral  triangle  with  the  stars 
Phad  and  Alcaid  in  Ursa  Major,  and  is  also  one  of  the 
four  stars  forming  the  "Diamond  of  Virgo."  It  comes 
to  the  meridian  at  9  P.M.  on  May  2oth. 


Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory 

PLATE  IV.     Owl  Nebula  in  Ursa  Major 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  V.     Spiral  Nebula  in  Canes  Venatici 

(Showing  detached  mass) 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  69 

In  the  head  of  the  northern  dog  Asterion,  about  three 
degrees  distant  from  Alcaid,  or  Eta  Ursae  Majoris,  can 
be  seen  the  famous  Whirlpool  Nebula  (Plate  V.). 
It  is  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  but  shows  itself  in  a 
small  telescope  as  a  bright  nebulous  cloud,  the  material 
of  which,  as  it  shrinks  under  its  own  gravitation,  is 
becoming  arranged  in  a  spiral  form.  As  is  the  case  of 
nearly  all  spiral  nebula,  it  will  continue  to  contract  and 
grow  hotter  and  be  transformed,  it  is  believed,  into  a 
central  sun  with  a  system  of  worlds  moving  around  it 
in  a  nearly  round  orbit.  The  majority  of  the  nebula  of 
the  sky,  it  is  known,  have  a  spiral  form,  and  it  is  now 
generally  believed  that  a  great  part  of  the  stars  are  the 
centres  of  true  solar  systems.  Out  of  these  infinite  varie- 
ties of  worlds,  may  there  not  be  many  planetary  bodies 
which  have  already  reached  the  stage  of  habitability,  and 
be  peopled  by  diverse  and  unimaginable  forms  of  life! 

The  plurality  of  inhabited  worlds  is  thus  beautifully 
alluded  to  in  Alexander  Pope's  Universal  Prayer — the 
Te  Deum  laudamus  of  that  broad  Christian  church 
which  embraces  God-loved  humanity: 

Father  of  all !  in  every  age, 

In  every  clime  adored, 

By  saint,  by  savage,  and  by  sage, 

Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord. 

Yet  not  to  earth's  contracted  span 
Thy  goodness  let  me  bound, 
Or  think  Thee,  Lord,  alone  of  man, 
When  thousand  worlds  are  round. 

If  I  am  right,  Thy  grace  impart, 
Still  in  the  right  to  stay ; 
If  I  am  wrong,  oh !  teach  my  heart 
To  find  that  better  way. 


70  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Bodies 

(The  Bear-driver) 

Lying  south  of  the  Greater  Bear  and  between  the 
Heart  of  Charles  on  the  west,  the  Northern  Crown  on 
the  east,  and  the  Virgin  on  the  south,  is  a  fine,  rich, 
straggling  constellation,  nearly  fifty  degrees  in  length, 
called  Bootes, 

whose  order 'd  beams 
Present  a  figure  driving  on  his  teams, 
Below  his  girdle,  near  his  knees,  he  bears 
The  bright  Arcturus,  fairest  of  the  stars. 

MANILIUS. 

The  name  Bootes  is  used  by  Homer,  and  means  a 
ploughman,  or  according  to  some  authorities  an  ox- 
driver,  and  is  not  infrequently  translated  the  "  Herds- 
man." By  the  Greeks,  Bootes  was  referred  to  as  the 
"Bear-keeper,"  or  "Bear-driver,"  because  he  seems  to 
be  driving  the  great  Bear  before  him,  in  its  ceaseless 
journey  around  the  pole. 

Bootes  only  seemed  to  roll 

His  Arctic  charge  around  the  pole. 

BYRON. 

In  his  Sartor  Resartus,  Chapter  III.,  Reminiscences, 
Thomas  Carlyle  mentions  him,  when  he  alludes  to  Herr 
Teufelsdrockh  as  having  said  when  he  returned  from 
the  coffee-house  at  midnight:  "It  is  true  sublimity  to 
be  here.  These  fringes  of  lamplight,  struggling  up 
through  the  smoke  and  thousand-fold  exhalation,  some 
fathoms  into  the  ancient  region  of  Night,  what  thinks 
Bootes  of  them,  as  he  leads  his  Hunting  Dogs  over  the 
zenith  in  their  leash  of  sidereal  fire?" 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  71 

The  constellation  is  usually  represented  by  the  figure 
of  a  tall  man  in  a  running  attitude,  grasping  a  spear, 
club,  or  pastoral  staff,  in  his  right  hand;  and  holding 
in  his  uplifted  left  hand  the  leash  of  his  two  hunting 
dogs,  Asterion  and  Chara,  which  seem  to  be  barking 
at  the  great  Bear.  It  is  visible  in  this  latitude  from 
March  to  November,  and  contains  one  star  seven- 
tenths  of  a  magnitude  above  the  first  rank,  one  star 
of  nearly  the  second  magnitude,  six  of  the  third, 
and  a  number  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth.  It  may 
be  easily  distinguished  by  the  position  and  splendour 
of  its  principal  star,  the  celebrated  golden-hued  Arctu- 
rus,  which  may  be  found  by  following  the  curve  of  the 
handle  of  The  Dipper,  prolonged  about  thirty  degrees. 

On  account  of  the  peculiar  shape  of  this  pentagonal 
constellation,  it  rises  horizontally  and  very  rapidly,  a 
little  north  of  east,  all  of  its  stars  emerging  from  below 
the  horizon  at  about  the  same  time.  But  it  sets  in  so 
nearly  the  upright  position,  that  it  requires  more  than 
eight  hours  to  slowly  sink  below  the  north-west  horizon. 

Aratus,  alluding  to  its  slow  setting,  describes  Bootes 
as: 

One  who 

When  tired  of  the  day 
At  even  lingers  more  than  half  the  night. 

Mythologically,  accounts  of  Bootes  vary  considerably. 
According  to  one  Greek  fable,  having  been  robbed  of  all 
his  goods  by  his  brother,  Bootes,  after  many  hardships 
and  wanderings,  invented  a  plough,  which  was  drawn  by 
two  oxen.  With  this  he  tilled  the  land  and  made  a 
living  thereby.  So  highly  pleased  was  his  mother, 
Callisto,  at  his  cleverness,  that,  desiring  to  preserve 
the  memory  of  his  invention,  and  at  the  same  time 


72  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

reward  him  for  so  industriously  working  the  knd,  she 
induced  Zeus  to  place  him  in  the  sky  together  with 
the  plough.  In  his  system  of  gospel  mythology  Seiss 
identifies  Bootes  with  the  "  Great  Shepherd  and 
Harvester  of  Souls." 

The  most  striking  object  in  the  constellation  is 
Arcturus,  or  Alpha  Bootis.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  stars  in  the  heavens,  and  has  been  the  ad- 
miration of  all  ages. 

In  his  beautiful  poem  to  Arcturus,  Whitman  writes: 

Star  of  resplendent  front ;  thy  glorious  eye 
Shines  on  me  still  from  out  yon  clouded  sky. 

Elgie  tersely  alludes  to  it  as  the  harbinger  of  spring 
and  the  apotheosis  of  summer.  It  ranks  with  Canopus 
as  one  of  the  largest  stars  in  the  universe,  its  diameter 
being  estimated  at  several  million  miles,  and  its  mass 
at  several  hundred  times  that  of  the  sun.  So  distant 
is  it  that  its  light  takes  forty-three  and  a  half  light 
years  to  reach  the  earth.  Then,  too,  it  has  the  most 
rapid  motion  of  any  of  the  brighter  stars,  and  has  been 
rightly  called  a  giant  "runaway  star."  While  it  is 
approaching  the  earth  at  the  rate  of  only  three  miles  a 
second,  it  is  moving  along  the  face  of  the  sky  at  a 
speed  of  over  eighty-nine  miles  a  second.  In  the  course 
of  a  century,  by  reason  of  this  very  rapid  motion,  it 
changes  its  place  among  the  other  stars,  by  a  distance 
equal  to  one-eighth  of  the  moon's  apparent  diameter. 

It  belongs  to  the  solar  type  of  suns,  although  its 
spectrum  indicates  that  it  is  a  little  farther  along  than 
the  sun  in  its  development  from  a  gaseous  to  a  solid 
body.  It  is  probably  surrounded,  as  Serviss  states, 
with  a  blanket  of  absorbing  metallic  vapours,  which 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  73 

cuts  off  a  large  part  of  its  radiant  energy  and  gives  it 
a  ruddy  hue. 

It  exceeds  the  sun  in  intrinsic  brilliancy  at  least  two 
hundred  times,  and  could  the  latter  be  moved  out  into 
the  depths  of  space  as  far  as  Arcturus,  it  would  appear 
as  faint  as  a  tenth-magnitude,  telescopic  star,  entirely 
invisible  to  the  naked  eye.  It  is  two  and  a  half  times 
brighter  than  Aldebaran  or  Altair,  and  nearly  four  times 
brighter  than  Regulus,  its  principal  rivals  in  the  north- 
ern sky  being  Vega  and  Capella.  It  is  said  to  give  out 
more  heat  than  Vega,  and  is  believed  by  some  to  be  the 
hottest  star  in  the  universe.  The  amount  of  heat, 
however,  received  from  it  has  been  proved  to  be  no 
more  than  would  come  from  a  candle  at  a  distance  of 
five  miles. 

On  October  5,  1858,  the  brightest  part  of  the  tail  of 
Donati's  great  comet — then  a  magnificent  spectacle 
in  the  northern  sky — passed  over  Arcturus,  without 
apparently  dimming  its  lustre. 

Twelve  centuries  ago,  Arcturus  was  a  guide  to  the 
husbandmen.  Thus  Hesiod,  in  the  second  book  of  his 
Works  and  Days,  wrote : 

When  in  the  rosy  morn  Arcturus  shines, 
Then  pluck  the  clusters  from  the  parent  vines: 
And  when  Arcturus  leaves  the  main  to  rise 
A  bright  star  shining  in  the  evening  skies, 
Then  prune  the  vine. 

Accordingly,  if  Hesiod  is  to  be  accredited  as  an  author- 
ity on  agriculture,  vines  should  be  pruned  about  the 
end  of  February  or  the  beginning  of  March. 

Arcturus  has  been  called  the  "Watcher"  or  "Guardi- 
an" of  the  Bear,  and  to  the  Arabs  was  known  as  the 
"  Keeper  of  Heaven."  It  is  one  of  the  few  stars  alluded 


74  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

to  in  the  Bible,  and  is  sometimes  called  "  Job's  Star." 
Its  risings  and  settings,  when  near  the  equinoxes,  were 
supposed  by  the  ancients  to  portend  great  tempests 
and  bad  harvests.  With  the  astrologers  Arcturus  por- 
tended honour  and  riches. 

It  is  only  three-tenths  of  a  magnitude  below  the  zero 
rank,  and  has  a  minute,  distant,  lilac  companion  of 
the  eleventh  magnitude.  Its  colour  is  a  very  pale  topaz 
when  high  in  the  heavens,  and  a  ruddy  yellow,  some- 
times red,  when  near  the  horizon.  It  is  situated  near 
the  left  knee  of  the  figure  and  forms  a  large  equilateral 
triangle  with  Denebola  and  Spica. 

Arcturus  rises  at  the  same  time  the  sun  sets  on  March 
30 th.  It  takes  seven  hours  and  fifteen  minutes  to 
reach  its  highest  point  each  day,  and  as  many  more  to 
travel  to  the  north-western  horizon,  where  it  sets 
fourteen  and  a  half  hours  after  it  has  risen.  At  the 
highest  point  in  its  journey  across  the  sky  it  is  three- 
quarters  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith. 
It  culminates  on  June  8th  at  9  P.M. 

Next  to  Arcturus,  the  brightest  star  in  the  constella- 
tion is  Mirac,  or  Epsilon  Bootis,  situated  in  the  right 
elbow  of  the  figure  about  eleven  degrees  from  Arcturus. 
It  is  a  most  beautiful  binary,  and  particularly  interest- 
ing by  reason  of  the  contrasting  colours  of  its  com- 
ponents. The  larger  star  of  the  pair  is  of  a  bright-orange 
colour,  and  of  nearly  the  second  magnitude,  while  the 
companion  star  is  of  the  sixth  magnitude,  and  of  a 
superb  sea-green  shade.  The  two  stars  can  be  seen 
in  a  small  telescope  nearly  three  minutes  of  arc  apart. 
Its  exceeding  beauty  has  won  for  it  the  appellation  of 
"Pulchrima." 

The  third-magnitude  star  Nekkar,  or  Beta,  marks 
the  head  of  the  figure.  It  forms  with  Delta  and  Gamma 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  75 

nearly  a  right-angled  triangle,  the  right  angle  being  at 
Nekkar.  Seginus,  or  Gamma,  also  a  third-magnitude 
star,  is  in  the  west  or  left  shoulder,  nearly  twenty 
degrees  from  Cor  Caroli.  The  little  triangle  of  fifth- 
magnitude  stars  near  the  end  of  the  handle  of  The  Dipper 
is  in  the  uplifted  left  hand,  holding  the  leash.  At  the 
top  of  the  club  held  in  the  right  hand,  is  situated  a  triple 
star  called  Alkalurops,  or  Mu.  It  is  a  white  star  of 
about  the  third  magnitude,  with  two  companions  of 
the  seventh  and  eighth  magnitudes  respectively.  Nearly 
five  degrees  south  of  Alkalurops  is  Delta,  a  white, 
third-magnitude  star,  also  in  the  club,  near  the  east  or 
right  shoulder.  In  the  field-glass,  it  shows  as  a  double 
star,  the  companion  star,  at  a  distance  of  less  than  two 
minutes  of  arc,  being  of  the  eighth  magnitude,  and  of  a 
pale  lilac  colour. 

In  the  right  ankle  is  Zeta,  a  bright,  white,  double 
star  of  the  third  magnitude.  Its  companion  star  is  of 
the  fourth-and-a-half  magnitude,  and  of  a  bluish-white 
colour.  Mufride,  or  Eta,  is  a  third-magnitude  star, 
situated  in  the  left  knee.  It  has  a  distant  lilac  com- 
panion of  about  the  tenth  magnitude.  Another  in- 
teresting binary  is  Xi,  an  orange-coloured  star  of  the 
third-and-a-half  magnitude,  in  the  right  knee.  The 
companion  star  is  of  about  the  sixth  magnitude  and  of 
a  purple  tint.  Four  of  the  third-magnitude  stars, 
namely  Alkalurops,  Nekkar,  Seginus,  and  Delta,  form 
the  figure  of  a  trapezium,  which  to  the  Arabs  was  known 
as  uThe  Female  Wolves." 

Draco 

(The  Great  Dragon) 

Winding  round  between  the  Big  and  the  Little  Dip- 
per, is  the  remarkably  crooked  constellation  of  Draco, 


76  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  great  "Dragon  of  the  North."  It  is  usually  repre- 
sented by  the  figure  of  a  long,  sinuous  serpent,  curving 
from  between  the  "pointers"  and  the  pole,  partly 
encircling  the  Lesser  Bear,  and  finally  reaching  out  its 
head,  with  gleaming  eyes,  toward  the  right  foot  of 
Hercules.  It  is  a  very  ancient  constellation,  and  is 
believed  by  many  to  be  the  crooked  serpent  of  Job 
xxvi.,  13: 

His  hand  hath  formed  the  crooked  serpent. 

The  north  pole  of  the  ecliptic  is  situated  midway 
between  Zeta  and  Delta,  almost  in  the  centre  of  the 
great  loop  formed  by  the  dragon's  coils,  and  close  to 
the  famous  planetary  nebula  (N.  G.  C.  6543),  which  is 
supposed  to  be  moving  towards  the  solar  system  at  the 
rate  of  forty  miles  a  second. 

With  vast  convulsions  Draco  holds 

Th'  ecliptic  axis  in  his  scaly  folds, 

O'er  half  the  skies  his  neck  enormous  rears, 

And  with  immense  meanders  parts  the  Bears. 

ERASMUS  DARWIN. 

In  the  first  book  of  his  didactic  poem,  the  Georgics, 
Virgil,  as  rendered  by  Dryden,  writes: 

Around  our  pole  the  spiry  Dragon  glides, 
And,  like  a  wandering  stream  the  Bears  divides — 
The  less  and  greater,  who,  by  Fates'  decree, 
Abhor  to  dive  beneath  the  northern  sea. 

Altogether  Draco  contains  over  eighty  stars,  includ- 
ing one  of  about  the  second  magnitude,  nine  of  about 
the  third,  and  a  number  of  the  fourth  and  fifth. 

The  head  of  the  dragon  lies  just  north  of  Iota  Her- 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  77 

culis  (which  is  in  the  giant's  left  foot),  and  is  marked 
by  a  conspicuous  quadrilateral  formed  by  the  stars 
Eltanin  or  Gamma,  Rastaban  or  Beta,  Xi,  and  Nu. 
The  bright  stars  Eltanin  and  Rastaban  mark  the 
11  dragon's  eyes,"  while  Xi  and  Nu,  along  with  Mu, 
a  double  fifth-magnitude  star  at  the  snout,  make  up  the 
jaw.  Several  scattered  groups  and  little  triangles  of 
stars  outline  the  various  coils  of  the  body,  while  an 
irregular  line  of  stars  traces  out  the  tail. 

The  leading  star  of  the  constellation,  though  not 
now  its  brightest  star,  is  Thuban,  or  Alpha  Draconis, 
situated  in  the  fifth  coil  of  the  dragon  near  the  tail, 
about  half-way  between  Mizar  in  Ursa  Major  and  the 
star  Gamma  in  Ursa  Minor,  one  of  the  Wardens  of  the 
Pole.  It  is  of  a  pale  yellow  colour,  and  was  formerly  a 
second-magnitude  star,  but  now  below  the  third  mag- 
nitude in  brightness.  Forty-odd  centuries  ago  it  was 
situated  very  near  the  pole  of  the  heavens,  and  was  then 
the  north  polar  star.  As  mentioned  in  the  previous 
chapter,  it  was  the  orientation  star  of  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid of  Cheops.  It  comes  to  the  meridian  at  9  P.M. 
on  June  7th. 

Eltanin,  or  Gamma,  the  right-hand  upper  star  in  the 
head  of  the  dragon,  is  now  the  brightest  star  in  the 
constellation.  It  is  a  beautiful  orange-coloured  star 
of  nearly  the  second  magnitude.  It  is  situated  less 
than  two  degrees  west  of  the  solstitial  colure,  and  forms 
an  equilateral  triangle  with  Polaris  and  Alcaid.  It  is 
famous  as  being  the  star  which  led  Bradley,  in  1725, 
while  attempting  to  verify  Hooke's  illusory  parallax, 
to  discover  the  laws  of  the  aberration  of  light.  It  is 
the  zenith  star  of  Greenwich,  and  it  has  been  supposed 
that  Flamsteed,  the  first  Astronomer  Royal  of  Great 
Britain,  sank  a  well  at  Greenwich  Observatory  for  the 


78  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

purpose  of  viewing  it  with  the  naked  eye  by  daylight, 
as  well  as  of  measuring  telescopically  its  distance  from 
the  true  zenith  at  the  moment  of  transit.  It  has  been 
identified  as  the  orientation  star  of  Rameses'  great 
temple  at  Karnak,  and  of  that  of  Thot  at  Thebes — 
the  City  of  the  Dragon.  It  is  about  thirty  and  a  half 
light  years  distant,  and  is  approaching  the  solar  system 
at  the  rate  of  nearly  seventeen  miles  a  second. 

About  four  degrees  to  the  left  of  Eltanin  is  Rastaban, 
or  Beta,  a  yellowish  star  of  the  third  magnitude  in  the 
left  eye  of  Draco.  It  has  a  very  distant  companion 
of  the  tenth  magnitude,  and  of  a  bluish  colour.  Xi, 
in  the  jaw,  is  also  a  third-magnitude  star,  and  Nu  is  one 
of  the  fourth.  Grumium,  a  third-magnitude  star,  is 
in  the  lower  right-hand  corner  of  the  quadrilateral 
forming  the  head. 

Omicron,  a  golden-yellow  fourth-magnitude  star, 
along  with  several  stars  of  the  fifth  magnitude,  forms 
the  first  coil.  Delta,  a  third-magnitude  star  of  a  deep 
yellow  colour,  is  situated  in  the  second  coil.  Zeta, 
another  third-magnitude  star,  is  in  the  third  coil,  nearly 
in  line  with  and  midway  between  Kochab  and  Eltanin. 
Following  these  is  the  star  Lambda,  or  Giansar,  also  of 
the  third  magnitude,  at  the  end  of  the  dragon's  tail. 
It  may  be  readily  recognised  lying  between  Polaris  and 
the  bowl  of  the  Big  Dipper,  about  eight  degrees  from 
Dubhe. 

In  Greek  mythology,  Draco  is  sometimes  represented 
as  the  watchful  dragon,  Ladon,  which  guarded  the 
golden  apples  in  the  famous  garden  of  the  Hesperides, 
at  the  foot  of  the  hyperborean  Atlas,  and  was  slain  by 
the  redoubtable  Hercules,  who  for  his  eleventh  labour 
was  ordered  to  procure  some  of  them.  Gaea,  the  earth- 
goddess,  it  is  said,  produced  these  apples — the  symbol 


The  Night-Sky  of  Spring  79 

of  love  and  fruitfulness — as  a  wedding  gift  for  Jupiter 
and  Juno,  and  Juno  rewarded  the  dragon  for  his  faithful 
services  by  placing  him  among  the  stars. 

Moore,  in  Irish  Melodies,  hints  that  Ladon  may  have 
been  sleeping  at  his  post  when  Hercules  entered  the 
Hesperian  grove: 

So  oft  th'  unamiable  dragon  hath  slept, 

That  the  garden's  imperfectly  watched  after  all. 

Draco  was  also  identified  with  the  dragon  slain  by  the 
Thracian  hero  Cadmus,  the  teeth  of  which,  sown  on  the 
advice  of  Minerva,  produced,  it  is  said,  a  most  startling 
crop  of  armed  and  sanguinary  men.  Then,  too,  one 
of  the  old  Greek  legends  asserts  that  when  the  Olym- 
pian gods  waged  war  on  the  earth-born  giants,  the 
dragon  was  brought  into  the  combat  and  opposed  to 
Minerva.  The  intrepid  goddess  suddenly  seized  it 
in  her  hands,  and  hurled  it,  twisted  as  it  was,  up  into 
the  sky.  By  chance  it  became  entangled  in  the  axis 
of  the  heavens  before  it  had  time  to  uncoil,  and  there, 
forever  fixed,  it  sleeps  curled  up  among  the  stars. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  SUMMER 

THE  epoch  of  the  summer  solstice,  which  occurs 
about  the  2ist  of  June,  when  the  sun  is  at  its  farthest 
northern  decimation,  marks  the  longest  day  of  the  north- 
ern hemisphere,  and  the  first  night-sky  of  summer. 
At  about  9:30  P.M.,  the  beautiful,  but  not  very  con- 
spicuous, constellations  of  summer  appear  as  represented 
in  Chart  II.,  and  with  its  help  they  may  be  readily 
traced  as  they  mount  up  and  cross  the  sky, 

A  silent  night-watch  o'er  the  world  to  keep. 

The  same  chart  represents  the  appearance  of  the 
great  dome  of  the  sky  at  about  1 1  P.M.  at  the  beginning 
of  June,  about  10  P.M.  the  middle  of  June,  about  9  P.M. 
the  first  week  of  July,  and  8  P.M.  about  the  middle  of 

July. 

The  magnificent  winter  constellations  have  now  about 
all  disappeared  in  the  west,  while  the  last  of  the  spring 
constellations  are  sinking  rapidly  towards  the  horizon. 
High  up  in  the  north-west  is  the  Greater  Bear,  descend- 
ing the  starry  slope  head  foremost,  and  directly  in  the 
north  is  the  Lesser  Bear  postured  acrobatically  on  the 
tip  of  his  tail. 

In  the  far  north  the  yellow  star  Capella,  the  chief 
of  the  dauntless  Charioteer,  is  seen  scintillating  palely, 

80 


CHART 
FORABOUT  JU 

(Ike  Summer  Solstice/, 
93°RM 


MAY  15,  MIDNIGHT 
JUN    1,11  P.M. 
JUN.15.IOP.M. 
JUL.  1,9   P.M. 
15.8P.M. 


PATH  OF  PLANETS 

IN  THE 
ZODIACALBAND 

StarM3gnJ.tud.es 


THE  ZODIACAL  BAND 
EXTENDS  8*ON  EACH 
SIDE  OFTHE  ECLIPTIC 


*&***»     CHART  11-  SUMMER  NIGHT   SET 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  81 

and  just  ready  to  set;  while  in  the  south-west  are 
seen  the  two  bright  stars  of  the  Balance,  or  golden 
Scales.  Just  west  of  the  meridian,  near  the  zenith, 
is  the  Y-shaped  group  of  stars  composing  the  straggling 
Bear-driver,  and  the  delicate  Northern  Crown.  Verti- 
cally beneath  the  Crown  is  the  head  of  the  Serpent, 
and  on  the  east,  almost  overhead,  is  the  great  group 
of  Hercules  with  its  wonderful  cluster.  Beyond  Her- 
cules towards  the  north-east  is  the  diamond-shaped 
head  of  the  great  shining  Dragon. 

Far  down  towards  the  southern  horizon  is  the  Scor- 
pion with  its  leader  the  blazing  red  star  Ant  ares.  In 
the  Milky  Way,  east  of  the  Scorpion,  lies  Sagittarius,  the 
Archer,  with  the  inverted  little  milk  dipper  and  the 
bended  bow.  Above  the  Scorpion  and  the  Archer 
are  the  intertwined  constellations  of  Ophiuchus,  the  ^* 
Serpent-bearer,  and  his  Serpent. 

Low  in  the  north-east  is  Cassiopeia,  the  Lady  in  the 
Chair.  And  over  in  the  eastern  sky,  half-way  up  to 
the  zenith,  is  the  Lyre,  or  heavenly  Harp,  with  its  bluish- 
white  star  Vega;  while,  buried  in  the  Milky  Way,  the 
beautiful  Northern  Cross,  extended  on  its  side,  shines 
out  above  it  in  the  north-east.  South-east  of  the  Cross, 
near  the  eastern  side  of  the  Milky  Way,  are  the 
three  prominent  stars  in  the  neck  of  the  flying  or 
soaring  Eagle,  with  the  pretty  little  group  of  the 
Dolphin,  popularly  known  as  Job's  Coffin,  near-by. 
The  summer  branch  of  the  Milky  Way  now  shines 
as  a  majestic  astral  arch  across  the  sky  from  the 
north-eastern  to  the  south-western  horizon,  and 
its  great  bifurcation  can  be  readily  traced  from 
Cygnus,  the  Swan,  where  it  begins,  past  the  Lyre, 
and  through  the  flying  or  soaring  Eagle,  to  the  Archer 
and  the  Scorpion. 


82  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Libra 

(The  Scales) 

Lying  south  of  the  equator,  east  of  Virgo  and  west 
of  Scorpio,  is  the  small  and  inconspicuous  asterism 
Libra,  the  Balance,  or  the  Scales.  It  is  the  seventh 
sign  and  the  eighth  constellation  of  the  zodiac,  and  is 
the  only  zodiacal  sign  that  represents  an  inanimate 
object,  and  also  the  only  one  not  of  Euphratean  origin. 
It  crosses  the  sky  from  south-east  to  south-west  during 
the  summer  months,  and  may  be  readily  recognised 
by  the  rude  square  formed  by  its  four  principal  stars. 

Originally  its  stars  represented  the  outstretched 
claws  of  the  imaginary  scorpion,  and  were,  it  is  believed, 
separated  from  that  venomous  monster  in  the  time  of 
Julius  Caesar,  and  called  Libra,  the  Balance.  In  classic 
days  it  marked  the  autumnal  equinox,  but  owing  to 
precession  that  position  is  now  held  by  Virgo. 

James  Thomson,  in  the  Autumn  of  his  Seasons,  writes : 

Libra  weighs  in  equal  scales  the  year. 

In  the  time  of  Augustus  Caesar,  it  was  regarded  as 
the  balance  of  Astraea,  the  goddess  of  justice,  and  by 
it  the  fate  of  mortals  was  supposed  to  be  weighed. 
According  to  Greek  legend  it  was  placed  in  the  zodiac 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  Mochus,  the  reputed 
inventor  of  weights  and  measures.  Caesius  thought 
that  it  represented  the  balances  of  the  Book  of  Daniel 
in  which  Belshazzar  had  been  weighed  and  found 
wanting. 

Virgil  in  his  flattering  address  to  the  Emperor  Au- 
gustus, in  the  First  Georgia,  alludes  to  the  glowing  scor- 
pion as  contracting  his  claws  for  the  special  purpose 
of  leaving  for  him  a  more  than  ample  space  in  the  sky. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  83 

And  Milton  in  his  Paradise  Lost,  Book  IV.,  in  the  account 
of  Gabriel's  discovery  of  Satan  in  Paradise,  and  the 
threatened  battle,  thus  refers  to  the  Scales: 

The  Eternal,  to  prevent  such  horrid  fray, 
Hung  forth  in  heaven  his  golden  scales,  yet  seen 
Betwixt  Astrsea  and  the  Scorpion  sign, 
Wherein  all  things  created  first  he  weighed. 

The  ancient  tillers  of  the  soil,  according  to  Virgil, 
regarded  the  sign  Libra  as  indicating  the  proper  time 
for  sowing  their  winter  grain.  Thus  Dryden,  in  his 
translation  of  the  first  book  of  the  Georgics,  writes: 

But  when  Astraea's  Balance,  hung  on  high 
Betwixt  the  nights  and  days,  divides  the  sky, 
Then  yoke  your  oxen,  sow  your  winter  grain, 
Till  cold  December  comes  with  driving  rain. 

The  sun  occupies  this  zodiacal  constellation  from 
the  29th  of  October  until  the  2ist  of  November. 

In  astrology  Libra  is  a  masculine  sign,  and  fortunate. 
Its  natives — those  born  from  September  23d  to  October 
23d — are  said  to  be  ruled  by  it. 

Libra  contains  two  stars  of  the  second  magnitude, 
two  of  the  third,  and  a  few  of  the  fifth. 

Alpha  Librae,  or  Zubenelgenubi,  meaning  the  southern 
claw,  is  in  the  southern  scale  of  the  Balance.  It  is  a 
yellowish-white  star  of  the  second  magnitude  and  is 
widely  double,  having  a  fifth-magnitude  companion  of 
a  light  grey  colour,  easily  seen  with  an  opera-glass.  It 
lies  almost  exactly  on  the  ecliptic,  and  is  situated  mid- 
way between  Spica  and  Antares.  It  culminates  on 
June  1 7th  at  9  P.M. 

Beta  Libras,  or  Zubeneschemali,  meaning  the  north- 


84  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

ern  claw,  is  in  the  northern  scale  of  the  Balance.  It  is 
situated  about  ten  degrees  north-east  of  Alpha,  and 
is  the  brighter  star  of  the  two.  It  is  an  interesting 
variable,  and  has  been  called  the  "Emerald  Star,"  as 
it  is  the  only  naked-eye  green-coloured  star  in  the  sky. 
It  is  of  the  second  magnitude  and  is  widely  double, 
having  a  companion  of  a  light  blue  colour.  It  belongs 
to  the  sirian  type  of  stars,  and  is  said  to  be  approach- 
ing the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  about  six  miles  a 
second.  Beta  Libras  forms  an  equilateral  triangle 
with  Arcturus  and  Spica,  and  one  also  with  Alpha 
Librae  and  Mu  Virginis.  Due  south  of  it  lies  the 
globular  cluster  5  M.,  known  to  contain  85  short-period 
variables. 

Delta,  a  star  of  the  fifth  magnitude,  near  the  centre 
of  the  beam  of  the  Balance,  is  a  remarkable  short- 
period  variable  of  the  Algol  type.  In  five  and  a  half 
hours  it  fades  to  the  sixth  magnitude,  and  after  six 
and  a  half  hours  it  regains  its  former  brightness.  It 
then  remains  stationary  for  about  forty-four  hours, 
after  which  it  fades  again.  Its  total  period  is  stated 
as  two  days,  seven  hours,  and  fifty-one  minutes. 

Corona  Borealis 

(The  Northern  Crown) 

Corona  Borealis,  or  the  Northern  Crown,  is  a  strik- 
ingly beautiful  little  constellation,  sometimes  called 
"  Ariadne's  Crown,"  situated  just  east  of  the  northern 
part  of  Bootes,  and  directly  north  of  the  Serpent's 
head.  It  is  confined  in  a  very  limited  space,  being 
only  about  fifteen  degrees  across,  and  is  nearly  in  line 
between  Vega  and  Arcturus.  It  is  of  great  antiquity 
and  is  marked  by  seven  twinkling  stars,  arranged  in  an 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  85 

almost  perfect  semicircle,  resembling  very  closely  a 
crown  of  sparkling  jewels.  It  is  one  of  the  few  constel- 
lations which  bear  any  similarity  to  the  objects  they 
are  supposed  to  represent. 

According  to  fable  it  commemorates  the  celebrated 
crown  of  seven  stars  presented  by  Bacchus  to  Ariadne, 
the  daughter  of  Minos,  son  of  Jupiter  and  second  King 
of  Crete,  to  console  her  for  the  desertion  of  the  faith- 
less Theseus.  It  is  related  that  Theseus,  son  of  ^Egeus, 
King  of  Athens,  went  as  one  of  the  seven  youths,  whom 
the  Athenians  were  obliged  to  send  every  year,  with 
seven  maidens,  as  a  tribute  to  Crete,  then  a  powerful 
maritime  state,  to  be  devoured  by  the  ferocious  Mino- 
taurus,  which  was  kept  in  the  labyrinth  at  Cnosus. 

The  beautiful  Ariadne  became  passionately  devoted 
to  Theseus,  and  provided  him  with  a  sword  with  which 
he  slew  the  Minotaurus,  and  a  clue  of  thread  by  means 
of  which  he  found  his  way  out  of  the  labyrinth.  The 
young  prince  Theseus  in  return  promised  to  marry  her, 
and  she  accordingly  left  Crete  with  him.  But  on  their 
arrival  at  Naxos,  an  island  in  the  ^Egean  Sea,  celebrated 
for  its  wine,  the  ungrateful  Theseus  basely  abandoned 
her.  Here  the  god  Bacchus  is  said  to  have  found  the 
disconsolate  Ariadne,  and  made  her  his  wife.  After 
her  death,  as  a  memorial  to  her  honour,  the  glorious 
crown  of  seven  stars,  which  he  gave  her  at  the  time  of 
their  marriage,  was  placed  in  the  sky  beneath  the 
guarding  club  of  Hercules. 

There,  too,  that  Crown  which  Bacchus  set  on  high, 
A  brilliant  monument  of  dead  Ariadne. 

ARATUS. 

Manilius,  in  the  first  book  of  his  poem  entitled  Astro- 
nomica,  thus  refers  to  it: 


86  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Near  to  Bootes  the  bright  Crown  is  viewed 
And  shines  with  stars  of  different  magnitude: 
One  placed  in  front  above  the  rest  displays 
A  vigorous  light,  and  darts  surprising  rays. 

To  the  Hebrews  the  Northern  Crown  was  known  by 
the  name  of  "Ataroth,"  while  the  Australian  natives 
called  it  "Womera,"  or  the  boomerang.  According 
to  Caesius  it  represented  the  crown  Ahasuerus  placed 
on  the  head  of  Esther. 

The  central  brilliant,  or  the  "  Pearl  of  the  Crown," 
is  Alphecca,  or  Alpha,  Coronae,  a  white  star  of  nearly 
the  second  magnitude  (2.3),  usually  referred  to  as 
Gemma,  or  the  "Jewel."  Six  fourth-magnitude  stars 
unite  with  Gemma  to  form  the  front  of  the  crown,  and 
scattered  over  the  constellation  are  six  stars  of  the  fifth 
magnitude,  besides  a  number  of  smaller  ones. 

Gemma  belongs  to  the  solar  type  of  stars,  and  is 
receding  from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  about 
twenty  miles  a  second.  It  has  a  distant  telescopic 
companion  of  the  eighth  magnitude,  and  of  a  pale 
violet  colour.  It  lies  ten  degrees  east  of  Epsilon  Bootis, 
and  forms  a  nearly  equilateral  triangle  with  the  stars 
Mirac  and  Delta  in  Bootes.  It  also  forms  an  isosceles 
triangle  with  Seginus  and  Arcturus,  the  vertex  of  which 
is  at  Arcturus. 

Some  small  meteors,  called  the  Coronids,  radiate 
from  near  Gemma  and  are  visible  from  about  the 
middle  of  April  to  the  last  of  June. 

The  star  Gemma  rises  in  the  north-east  and  takes 
seven  hours  and  forty-six  minutes  in  reaching  the 
meridian,  when  it  is  about  seven-eighths  of  the  way  up 
from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith.  It  culminates  at  9 
P.M.,  June  28th. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  87 

The  next  star  east  of  Gemma  or  Alpha  Coronas  is 
Gamma,  a  famous  binary,  the  components  being  usually 
reckoned  as  of  the  fourth  and  the  seventh  magnitudes. 
North-east  of  Gemma  is  the  variable  star  called  "  Varia- 
bilis  Coronae,"  which  was  discovered  by  Pigott  in 
1795.  It  is  of  much  interest  by  reason  of  its  rapid  and 
irregular  changes  from  about  the  sixth  to  the  thirteenth 
magnitude. 

On  the  evening  of  May  12,  1866,  there  suddenly 
appeared,  just  south  of  the  star  Epsilon,  near  the  eastern 
edge  of  the  crown,  the  famous  temporary  star,  T 
Coronas,  popularly  known  as  the  "Blaze  Star/'  of  |he 
Northern  Crown.  It  was  discovered  with  the  unaided 
eye,  by  John  Birmingham,  an  amateur  astronomer,  at 
Millbrook  in  Ireland,  and  appeared  almost  as  bright 
as  Gemma.  It  declined  rapidly  in  brilliance,  however, 
and  in  nine  days  was  invisible  to  the  unassisted  eye^ 
It  is  now  of  a  pale  yellow  colour,  and  the  telescope 
shows  it,  as  in  its  original  condition,  shining  as  a  star*~ 
of  the  ninth  magnitude.  It  was  notable  as  being  the 
first  temporary  star  to  appear  since  the  invention  of 
the  spectroscope. 

Scorpio 

(The  Scorpion) 

Stretching  along  the  southern  horizon,  directly  below 
Ophiuchus  the  Serpent-bearer,  west  of  Sagittarius, 
and  east  of  Libra  is  Scorpio,  the  Scorpion,  the  eighth 
sign  and  ninth  constellation  of  the  zodiac.  It  is  the 
most  brilliant  of  the  summer  constellations,  and  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and  best  marked  in  the  sky. 
It  is  represented  as  the  figure  of  a  gigantic  scorpion  with 
its  head  to  the  west,  brandishing  its  reverted  sting  as 


88  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

if  about  to  strike  the  heel  of  Ophiuchus,  who  appears 
to  be  trampling  upon  it.  It  is  very  irregular  in  shape, 
but  resembles  the  object  after  which  it  is  named  more 
than  do  most  constellations.  It  requires  little  play 
of  the  imagination  to  fancy  the  huge  and  baneful 
reptile  trailing  along  the  southern  horizon,  the  stumps 
of  its  sundered  claws  reaching  out  towards  Libra,  and 
its  long  curved  tail  just  dragging  clear  of  the  earth. 

It  is  the  most  southerly  of  the  zodiacal  constella- 
tions, and  can  be  seen  crossing  from  south-east  to  south- 
west, from  about  the  first  of  June  until  late  in  October. 
It  is  about  twenty-five  degrees  in  length,  its  eastern 
extremity  being  immersed  in  the  Milky  Way,  and  may 
be  found  by  drawing  downward  for  about  sixty  degrees 
a  line  at  right  angles  to  Altair  and  his  two  companions. 
Then,  too,  its  brightest  gem,  Antares,  is  nearly  south  of 
Ras  Algethi  in  the  foot  of  Hercules,  and  almost  as  far 
beyond  Spica  as  Spica  is  beyond  Regulus. 

In  his  beautiful  fable  of  Phaethon,  Ovid,  who  lived 
in  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  thus  refers  to  the  con- 
stellation: 

There  is  a  place  above,  where  Scorpion  bent, 
Its  tail  and  arms  surround  a  vast  extent, 
In  a  wide  circuit  of  the  heavens  he  shines, 
And  fills  the  place  of  two  celestial  signs. 

The  sun  enters  the  sign  Scorpio  on  the  23d  of  October, 
but  does  not  reach  the  constellation  before  the  2ist  of 
November,  which  it  occupies  until  the  i6th  of  December. 

Besides  Antares,  Scorpio  contains  two  stars  of  the 
second  magnitude,  about  nine  of  the  third,  and  several 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth. 

In  mythology,  one  of  the  legends  connects  the  Scor- 
pion with  the  story  of  Orion,  the  mighty  hunter.  It 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  89 

is  said  to  be  the  famous  reptile  which  sprang  out  of  the 
earth  at  the  command  of  Juno  and  bit  the  foot  of  Orion, 
causing  his  death.  Scorpio  and  Orion  are  so  placed 
in  the  heavens  that  just  as  the  former  rises  in  the 
eastern  sky  the  latter  dips  below  the  western  horizon. 
The  two  constellations  never  appear  in  the  heavens 
together. 

When  the  Scorpion  comes 

Orion  flees  to  the  utmost  end  of  earth. 

ARATUS. 

And  yet  the  Scorpion  itself  was  in  danger,  as  Sack- 
ville,  in  his  introduction  to  the  Mirror  for  Magistrates, 
writes: 

Whiles  Scorpio,  dreading  Sagittarius'  dart 

Whose  bow  prest  bent  in  flight  the  string  had  slipped, 

Down  slid  into  the  ocean  flood  apart. 

Another  fable  connects  the  Scorpion  with  the  story 
of  Phaethon  as  the  cause  of  the  disastrous  runaway  of 
the  steeds  of  Phoebus  Apollo,  divine  king  of  the  heavens. 
Phaethon  was  the  son  of  Helios  or  "old  Father  Phoebus," 
by  the  Oceanid  Clymene,  the  wife  of  Merops,  King  of 
the  Ethiopians.  It  is  related  that  "this  roaring  young 
blade"  was  presumptuous  and  ambitious  enough  to 
request  "his  doting  old  father"  to  allow  him,  for  one 
day,  to  drive  the  chariot  of  the  sun  across  the  heavens. 

Nay,  Phaethon,  don't 
I  beg  you  won't. 

SAXE. 

Induced  by  the  entreaties  of  his  son  and  of  Clymene, 
Helios,  however,  finally  yielded,  and  the  horses  were 


90  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

harnessed.  But  Phaethon,  being  an  inexperienced 
driver,  the  horses,  starting  in  Aries,  soon  got  beyond 
control,  and  dashing  off  from  their  usual  track,  rushed 
headlong  through  the  constellations  (Plate  VI.).  As 
they  approached  the  scorpion  with  its  immense  tail 
and  horrid  sting  upraised  ready  to  strike,  Phaethon, 
terror-stricken,  dropped  the  reins.  The  horses,  stung 
by  the  scorpion,  took  fright,  and  plunging  wildly, 
hurled  the  chariot  over  the  trackless  wastes,  so  near  the 
earth  as  almost  to  set  it  on  fire.  Thereupon,  Jupiter 
struck  the  ambitious  youth  with  a  flash  of  lightning, 
and  tumbled  him  headlong  from  his  chariot  down  into 
the  great  sky -river  Eridanus.  His  three  sisters,  the 
Heliades,  who  had  harnessed  up  the  horses  to  the 
chariot,  bewailed  the  death  of  their  brother  so  bitterly 
on  the  banks  of  the  Eridanus,  that  the  gods  in  compas- 
sion changed  them  into  poplars,  and  their  tears  into 
amber.  Ovid  duly  commemorated  their  grief  in  the 
following  lines: 

All  the  long  night  their  mournful  watch  they  keep, 
And  all  the  day  stand  round  the  tomb  and  weep. 

In  the  Hebrew  zodiac,  Scorpio  is  allotted  to  Dan, 
because  it  is  written,  "Dan  shall  be  a  serpent  by  the 
way,  an  adder  in  the  path"  (Genesis  xlix.,  17). 

Astrologically  considered,  Scorpio  is  the  house  and 
joy  of  Mars.  Those  born  from  October  23d  to  Novem- 
ber 22d  are  said  to  be  ruled  by  it.  It  is  a  feminine 
sign,  and  is  regarded  as  unfortunate.  The  ancients 
supposed  it  to  be  emblematic  of  fevers  and  other 
diseases  which  prevail  in  the  autumn. 

In  Dante's  Purgatorio  (Longfellow's  tr.)  it  is  referred 
to  as: 


mtm 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  91 

that  cold  animal 
Which  with  its  tail  doth  smite  amain  the  nations. 

The  most  noted  star  in  the  constellation  is  Ant  ares 
or  Alpha  called  also  Cor  Scorpionis  or  Le  Cceur  du 
Scorpion,  the  heart  of  the  Scorpion.  It  is  a  nearly 
first-magnitude  star  of  a  fiery  red  colour  situated  in  the 
heart  of  the  venomous  reptile.  It  owes  its  name  to  its 
being  the  reddest  bright  star  in  the  sky,  the  rival  of 
Mars,  the  ruddy  planet,  in  brightness  and  colour 
(from  the  Greek  Anti,  like,  and  Ares,  Mars).  It  lies 
south  of  the  celestial  equator  in  a  long  and  curving  row 
of  bright  stars  which  mark  the  body  and  reverting 
sting  of  the  scorpion.  It  is  pointed  out  by  a  line  start- 
ing at  Polaris,  and  running  thence  directly  south, 
about  half-way  between  Arcturus  and  Vega,  for  a 
distance  of  about  116  degrees.  Along  with  Arcturus 
and  Spica  it  makes  up  a  magnificent  right-angled 
triangle,  Spica  making  the  right  angle.  And  again, 
it  forms  with  Vega  and  Arcturus  a  great  isosceles 
triangle,  of  which  the  latter  star  is  the  apex. 

It  rises  in  the  south-east  and  is  so  far  south  of  the 
equator  that  it  requires  only  four  hours  and  a  quarter 
to  reach  the  meridian,  when  it  is  only  one-quarter  of 
the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith,  It  appears 
above  the  horizon  nearly  an  hour  before  Altair,  an  hour 
and  a  half  after  Deneb,  and  about  two  hours  and  a 
half  after , Vega.  On  the  first  day  of  June  it  rises  just 
as  the  sun  sets,  and  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  on  July  nth. 
It  will  be  seen  at  its  brightest  in  the  latter  part  of  June 
and  during  July. 

Antares  is  a  magnificent  binary,  having  an  emerald 
green  companion  star  of  the  seventh  and  a  half  magni- 
tude, which  forms  a  strong  contrast  to  the  flaming  red 


92  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

of  the  larger  star,  and  can  be  seen  with  a  moderately 
small  telescope.  It  has  two  small  stars,  Sigma  and 
Tau,  of  about  the  third  magnitude,  which  stand  like 
guardians  on  either  side.  The  fiery  red  colour  of 
Antares  indicates  that  it  belongs  to  the  type  of  suns 
that  are  far  advanced  in  development,  and  in  which, 
as  Serviss  states,  the  absorbing  envelopes  have  become 
so  dense  that  they  are  fast  approaching  extinction. 
And  yet  as  the  average  duration  of  solar  life  is  many 
million  years,  its  ultimate  extinction  may  not  take  place 
for  untold  ages.  Some  authorities  claim  that  with  all 
its  waning,  it  sends  out  nine  hundred  times  as  much 
light  as  the  sun.  It  is  about  112  light  years  distant, 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  180  miles  a  minute,  and 
is  approaching  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  about  114 
miles  a  minute. 

Antares  was  one  the  four  Royal  stars  of  the  ancient 
Persians,  and  the  oldest  of  the  Grecian  temples  were 
oriented  to  it. 

North-west  of  Antares  are  two  second-magnitude 
stars,  Beta  and  Delta,  which  with  Pi,  a  third-magnitude 
star  south  of  them,  form  a  nearly  vertical  curve, 
about  seven  degrees  in  length,  which  marks  the  front 
of  the  scorpion's  head.  The  tail  is  formed  by  several 
third-  and  fourth-magnitude  stars,  which  sweep  in  a 
magnificent  U-shaped  curve  through  the  Milky  Way, 
ending  about  seventeen  degrees  south-east  of  Antares, 
in  a  pair  of  bright  stars  which  mark  the  reptile's  up- 
lifted sting.  Beginning  with  Epsilon,  the  names  of 
these  stars  are,  Mu,  Zeta,  Eta,  Theta,  Iota,  Kappa, 
Lambda,  and  Upsilon.  The  three  stars,  Kappa,  Lambda, 
and  Upsilon,  in  the  extremity  of  the  tail,  form  a  small 
triangle.  The  twin  stars  Shaula  or  Lambda,  and 
Lesuth  or  Upsilon,  are  situated  in  the  reverted  sting 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  93 

of  the  scorpion,  Shaula  being  the  brighter  of  the  two. 

To  the  Polynesians  the  crooked  line  of  stars  from  Mu 
to  Upsilon,  which  form  the  tail,  was  known  as  the 
"  Fish-hook  of  Mani." 

About  nine  degrees  north-west  of  Antares  is  a  beauti- 
ful, easily  seen  double,  known  as  Graffias,  or  Beta  Scor- 
pionis.  The  larger  star  of  the  pair  is  of  a  pale  white 
colour,  and  of  the  second  magnitude,  while  the  com- 
panion star  is  of  the  sixth  magnitude  and  of  a  pale 
blue  colour.  The  two  stars  can  be  seen  nearly  thirteen 
minutes  of  arc  apart.  Jabbah  or  Nu  is  a  beautiful 
triple  star  of  the  fourth  magnitude,  two  degrees  east 
of  Beta.  Its  two  companions  are  of  the  seventh  magni- 
tude. Sigma,  one  of  the  attendants  or  guardians  of 
Antares,  and  about  two  degrees  west  of  it,  is  a  white, 
third-magnitude  star,  with  a  bluish,  ninth-magnitude 
companion,  situated  in  the  body  of  the  scorpion.  Two 
degrees  south-east  of  Antares  is  Tau,  a  star  of  nearly 
the  third  magnitude,  the  eastern  attendant  or  guardian 
of  the  ruddy  star.  Epsilon,  a  star  of  the  third  magni- 
tude, is  situated  seven  degrees  below  Tau,  and  is  the 
first  star  in  the  tail.  Mu,  the  third  star  from  Antares, 
and  nearly  five  degrees  below  Epsilon,  is  also  a  third- 
magnitude  star.  Zeta,  the  next  star  below  Mu,  is 
situated  where  the  curve  turns  suddenly  to  the  east. 
It  is  a  third-magnitude  star,  and  a  charming  double, 
one  of  the  components  being  reddish  and  the  other 
bluish  in  colour. 

To  the  north  and  east  of  Shaula  and  Lesuth,  the 
twin  stars  in  the  uplifted  sting,  are  two  beautiful  star 
clusters,  about  four  degrees  apart,  known  as  6  M.  and 
7  M.  which  can  be  very  well  seen  with  an  opera  glass. 
Nearly  half-way  between  Antares  and  Graffias,  or  Beta 
Scorpionis,  is  a  fine  star  cluster,  80  M.,  visible  with 


94  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

a  small  telescope.  It  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  richest  and 
most  condensed  masses  of  stars  in  the  heavens.  In  May, 
1860,  a  star  flared  up  apparently  in  the  centre  of  the 
cluster,  and  shone  at  first  with  marked  brilliancy,  but 
faded  in  less  than  a  month  into  invisibility.  On  the 
east  of  this  conspicuous  cluster  is  a  dark  gap  in  the 
sky,  a  starless  spot  about  four  degrees  wide.  It  is 
interesting  as  being  the  first  " black-hole"  or  " coal- 
sack  "  noted  by  Sir  William  Herschel. 

Ophiuchus  and  Serpens 

(The  Serpent-Bearer  and  his  Serpent) 

The  intertwined  constellations  of  Ophiuchus,  the 
Serpent-bearer,  and  Serpens,  the  Serpent,  lie  on  both 
sides  of  the  equator,  and  occupy  a  space  in  the  sky 
nearly  fifty  degrees  in  length  and  breadth,  north  of 
Scorpio  and  south  of  Hercules.  They  are  supposed 
to  represent  a  giant  treading  upon  the  scorpion  and 
crushing  in  his  hands  an  enormous  writhing  serpent, 
whose  upraised  head  is  just  south  of  the  Northern 
Crown.  The  double  constellation,  the  outline  of 
which  is  weirdly  irregular,  contains  two  stars  of  about 
the  second  magnitude,  about  thirteen  of  the  third, 
and  a  number  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  magnitudes, 
and  may  be  seen  from  May  to  September. 

The  head  of  the  giant  is  northward,  and  is  near  that 
of  Hercules.  It  is  marked  by  a  fairly  bright  second- 
magnitude  star,  Alpha  Ophiuchi,  or  Ras  Alhague,  the 
"  head  of  the  Serpent  Charmer,"  situated  at  about  five 
degrees  east  and  two  degrees  south  of  Ras  Algethi  in 
Hercules,  and  nearly  midway  between  Vega  and  Antares. 
His  legs  are  braced  wide  apart,  the  right  being  immersed 
in  the  Milky  Way,  with  the  heel  close  to  the  tail  of  the 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  95 

Scorpion,  while  the  left  foot  is  planted  over  its  heart. 
The  third-magnitude  stars  Beta,  or  Cheleb,  and  Gamma 
mark  the  right  shoulder,  while  the  fourth-magnitude 
star  Chi  indicates  the  left  shoulder.  Sabik,  or  Eta,  a 
brilliant  star  of  the  third  magnitude  on  the  margin  of 
the  Milky  Way,  is  in  the  right  knee,  and  Zeta,  also  of 
the  third  magnitude,  is  in  the  left  knee.  The  left 
hand,  which  grasps  the  serpent  below  the  neck,  is 
marked  by  the  third-magnitude  stars  Delta  and  Epsilon. 
The  right  hand,  which  grasps  the  serpent  near  the  tail, 
is  marked  by  the  fourth-  and  fifth-magnitude  stars, 
Nu  and  Tau,  while  the  feet  are  indicated  by  several 
small  stars. 

Although,  as  noted  by  Hill,  Ophiuchus  is  not  counted 
among  the  zodiacal  constellations,  a  part  of  it  lies 
across  the  ecliptic,  so  that  the  sun,  which  occupies 
twenty-five  days  from  November  2ist  to  December 
1 6th,  in  passing  from  Libra  to  Sagittarius,  spends 
sixteen  days  of  the  time  in  travelling  through  Ophiuchus. 

Aratus  thus  clearly  describes  the  figure: 

His  feet  stamp  Scorpio  down,  enormous  beast, 
Crushing  the  monster's  eye  and  platted  breast. 
With  outstretched  arms  he  holds  the  Serpent's  coils, 
His  limbs  it  folds  within  its  scaly  toils, 
With  his  right  hand,  its  writhing  tail  he  grasps, 
Its  swelling  neck,  his  left  securely  clasps, 
The  reptile  rears  its  crested  head  on  high 
Reaching  the  seven-starred  Crown  in  northern  sky. 

The  head  of  the  serpent — Serpentis  Caput — lies 
about  ten  degrees  south  of  the  Northern  Crown,  and  is 
marked  by  five  stars  grouped  in  the  form  of  a  capital 
X,  two  of  the  stars  being  of  the  third  magnitude,  one  of 
the  fourth,  and  two  of  the  fifth.  From  its  figure  it  is 


96  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

sometimes  called  St.  Andre w's  Cross.  Of  the  five 
stars,  Beta  and  Gamma  are  in  the  feet  of  the  X,  Kappa 
in  the  centre,  and  Iota  and  Rho  at  the  top.  Winding 
down  below  this  group  are  the  third-magnitude  star 
Delta,  the  second-magnitude  star  Alpha,  in  the  serpent's 
neck  about  ten  degrees  below  the  head,  and  the  third- 
magnitude  star  Epsilon  in  the  body.  Here  the  body 
of  the  serpent  winds  through  Ophiuchus,  and  passing 
up  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  giant  to  Aquila  has  one 
star  of  the  third  magnitude,  Eta,  in  the  coil  adjoining 
Sobieski's  Shield,  and  one  of  the  fourth  magnitude, 
Theta,  which  marks  the  tip  of  the  tail — Serpentis 
Cauda. 

Statius  thus  refers  to  the  reptile: 

Vast  as  the  starry  serpent  that  on  high 
Tracks  the  clear  ether  and  divides  the  sky, 
And  southward  winding  from  the  northern  Wain 
Shoots  to  remoter  spheres  its  glittering  train. 

According  to  Greek  mythology,  Ophiuchus  repre- 
sents the  famous  physician  and  father  of  medicine, 
^Esculapius,  the  son  of  Apollo  and  Coronis,  who  was 
instructed  in  the  art  of  healing  and  hunting  by  Chiron, 
the  most  celebrated  among  the  centaurs.  He  is  said 
to  have  taken  part  in  the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts 
to  Colchis,  and  in  the  celebrated  hunt  of  the  Calydonian 
boar.  In  later  years  he  became  so  skilled  in  practice, 
that,  it  is  said,  he  not  only  cured  all  the  sick,  but  often 
restored  the  dead  to  life.  Whereupon,  Pluto  com- 
plained to  Jupiter  that  he  was  so  diminishing  the  num- 
ber of  the  dead  that  his  kingdom  was  in  danger  of 
being  depopulated.  ^Esculapius  having,  at  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  Diana,  just  restored  Hippolytus,  the 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  97 

son  of  Theseus,  to  life,  Jupiter,  fearing  lest  men,  through 
his  great  skill,  might  contrive  to  escape  death  alto- 
gether, killed  him  with  a  flash  of  lightning,  but  after- 
wards, on  the  request  of  Apollo,  placed  him  among  the 
constellations. 

It  is  related  that  at  the  birth  of  ^Esculapius,  the 
inspired  daughter  of  Chiron  uttered  this  prophetic 
strain : 

Hail,  great  physician  of  the  world,  all  hail! 
Hail,  mighty  infant,  who,  in  years  to  come, 
Shall  heal  the  nations  and  defraud  the  tomb ! 
Swift  be  thy  growth!  thy  triumphs  unconfmed! 
Make  kingdoms  thicker,  and  increase  mankind. 
Thy  daring  art  shall  animate  the  dead, 
And  draw  the  thunder  on  thy  guilty  head: 
Then  shalt  thou  die,  but  from  the  dark  abode 
Rise  up  victorious,  and  be  twice  a  god. 

Ophiuchus  is  also  identified  with  Laocoon,  a  son  of 
Antenor,  and  priest  of  Neptune,  who  with  his  two  sons, 
during  the  siege  of  Troy,  was  attacked  and  strangled 
by  two  sea  serpents,  because  he  hurled  a  spear  into 
the  side  of  the  wooden  horse.  His  death  has  formed 
the  subject  of  many  ancient  works  of  art,  and  its  story 
was  frequently  related  by  ancient  poets,  such  as 
Sophocles,  Virgil,  and  others.  A  magnificent  group 
representing  the  father  and  his  two  sons,  entwined  by 
two  serpents,  is  still  extant  in  the  Vatican. 

The  brightest  star  in  Ophiuchus,  known  as  Ras 
Alhague,  the  "head  of  the  Serpent-charmer,"  is  a 
sapphire-blue  star  with  a  minute  ninth-magnitude  com- 
panion of  a  pale  grey  colour.  It  marks  the  giant 's 
head,  and  may  be  located  by  drawing  a  line  from  Arc- 
turus  to  the  head  of  the  serpent,  and  prolonging  it  an 


98  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

equal  distance.  It  is  forty-four  light  years  distant, 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  ten  miles  a  second,  and 
is  receding  from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  twelve 
miles  a  second. 

Ras  Alhague  rises  a  little  north  of  east,  and  requires 
six  hours  and  forty-six  minutes  to  reach  the  meridian, 
when  it  is  not  quite  three-quarters  of  the  way  up  from 
the  horizon  to  the  zenith.  It  rises  just  after  the  sun 
sets  in  the  middle  of  May,  and  culminates  at  9  P.M., 
July  28th. 

Delta  Ophiuchi,  or  Yed,  the  third-magnitude  star 
in  the  left  hand  of  the  Serpent-bearer,  is  yellowish  in 
colour,  and  has  a  minute  tenth-magnitude  companion 
of  a  pale  lilac  hue.  Sabik,  or  Eta  Ophiuchi,  the  brilliant 
third-magnitude  star  in  the  right  knee,  is  of  a  pale 
yellow  colour,  and  has  a  small  bluish  companion  of  the 
thirteenth  magnitude.  The  fourth-magnitude  star, 
Lambda  Ophiuchi,  or  Marfik,  has  a  close  bluish- 
coloured  companion  of  the  sixth  magnitude.  Just  east 
of  Gamma  Ophiuchi  is  an  interesting  binary  known  as 
70  Ophiuchi.  It  is  one  of  the  stars  of  the  discarded 
asterism,  "Taurus  Poniatowski,"  the  Polish  Bull, 
introduced  in  1778  by  the  Polish  astronomer  Poczobut, 
in  honour  of  the  King  of  Poland.  It  has  a  period  of 
about  eighty-eight  years.  The  magnitudes  of  the  two 
component  stars  are,  approximately,  fourth  and  sixth. 
Rho,  the  larger  of  the  two  stars  in  the  left  foot  of  Ophi- 
uchus  is  of  rather  less  than  the  third  magnitude,  and 
is  situated  just  above  Antares.  It  is  noted  as  being 
the  star  around  which  Barnard  discovered  by  photo- 
graphy a  wonderful  nebula,  a  filmy  cloud  of  sufficient 
density  to  obscure  the  light  of  the  near-by  stars. 

Alpha  Serpentis,  the  leading  star  of  the  Serpent,  is  a 
pale  yellow  star  with  a  minute  fifteenth-magnitude 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  99 

companion  of  a  fine  blue  shade.  It  was  known  to  the 
ancients  by  the  name  "Unuk  al  Hay,"  and  by  astro- 
logers of  the  Middle  Ages  as  "Cor  Serpentis,"  or  the 
11  heart  of  the  Serpent."  Beta  Serpentis,  a  delicate 
double  star  in  the  serpent's  under  jaw,  is  of  the  third 
magnitude  and  of  a  bluish  colour,  with  a  ninth-magni- 
tude companion  of  a  yellowish  tinge.  The  star  Theta 
Serpentis,  or  Alya,  is  a  charming  double,  the  components 
being  of  nearly  the  same  magnitude  and  not  over  one- 
third  of  a  minute  apart.  It  is  situated  over  the  little 
constellation  of  Sobieski's  Shield,  on  the  border  of  the 
Milky  Way,  and  may  be  found  by  drawing  a  line  from 
Beta  Herculis  through  Alpha  Ophiuchi.  Then,  too, 
a  line  drawn  from  Eta  in  the  right  knee  of  the  Serpent- 
bearer  'to  Gamma  in  the  Soaring  Eagle  will  indicate 
the  direction  of  the  tail  of  the  serpent. 

On  October  10,  1604,  a  white  and  surprisingly  bril- 
liant temporary  star,  discovered  by  Brunowski  and 
often  called  "Kepler's  Star,"  broke  out  in  the  constella- 
tion Ophiuchus,  but,  after  shining  for  some  time  as  bright 
as  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  it  rapidly  faded,  and 
disappeared  entirely  about  the  end  of  March,  1606. 
In  the  summer  of  1910,  a  new  comet  was  discovered 
by  Rev.  Joel  Metcalf  of  Taunton,  Mass.,  drifting  near 
the  star  Gamma  Serpentis.  The  comet  was  a  rather 
insignificant  object,  but  was  bright  enough  in  the  latter 
part  of  August  to  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye. 

Lyra 

(The  Lyre) 

Lying  close  to  the  edge  of  the  Milky  Way,  south- 
east of  the  head  of  the  Dragon,  and  west  of  the  neck  of 
the  Swan,  is  the  small,  but  beautiful  constellation  Lyra, 


ioo  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

or  the  Harp.  It  occupies  the  region  of  the  heavens 
towards  which  the  solar  system  is  travelling,  the  so- 
called  "Apex  of  the  Sun's  Way,"  being  probably  fairly 
near  the  fourth-magnitude  star  Delta  in  the  middle 
of  the  Harp.  It  is  noted  because  of  its  lucida,  the 
brilliant  steel-blue  star  Vega  or  Alpha  Lyrae,  the  glory 
of  the  summer  sky.  To  the  old  Arabian  star-gazers, 
it  was  known  as  the  "Falling"  or  "Swooping  Eagle,"  as 
contrasted  with  Aquila  near-by,  the  "Flying"  or  "Soar- 
ing eagle,"  and  on  some  old  maps  was  shown  as  an 
Eagle  with  a  harp  slung  around  its  neck. 

Longfellow,  in  The  Occupation  of  Orion,  thus  alludes 
to  the  constellation: 

I  saw  with  its  celestial  keys, 
Its  chords  of  air,  its  frets  of  fire, 
The  Samian's  great  ^Eolian  lyre, 
Rising  through  all  the  seven-fold  bars, 
From  earth  unto  the  fixed  stars. 

In  addition  to  Vega,  Lyra  contains  one  star  of  the 
third  magnitude,  five  of  the  fourth,  and  a  few  of  the 
fifth.  It  is  easily  located  by  a  line  drawn  from  Arctu- 
rus  through  the  Northern  Crown,  which  leads  directly 
to  the  Swan,  and  in  its  course  passes  over  the  Lyre. 
Then,  too,  the  three  stars  in  the  neck  of  Aquila — 
the  so-called  "Family  of  Aquila" — point  directly  to  it. 
Of  the  six  stars  forming  a  figure  resembling  a  lyre,  four 
dainty  ones  are  arranged  in  an  oblique  parallelogram 
close  by  Vega,  and  by  which  the  latter  may  be  easily 
recognised.  And  again,  Vega,  Deneb,  and  Altair, 
form  a  well-known  triangle  by  which  they  are  readily 
identified  in  the  sky. 

In   mythology    Lyra   is   the   celestial   harp,    which 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  101 

Apollo  presented  to  Orpheus,  the  son  of  (Eagrus  and 
Calliope,  and  with  which,  instructed  by  the  Muses, 
he  charmed  not  only  the  wild  beasts,  but  also  the  stones 
and  trees  upon  Olympus,  and  even  chained  the  rivers 
in  their  courses.  While  in  search  of  his  long-lost  bride, 
a  nymph  named  Eurydice,  who  died  from  the  bite  of 
a  serpent,  the  skilled  harpist  succeeded  in  so  charming 
the  guardians  of  the  Stygian  realms  that  they  allowed 
him  to  enter.  So  entrancing  was  the  music  of  his 
magic  harp,  that  it  brought  tears  to  the  eyes  of  the 
Erinyes,  the  wheel  of  Ixion  stopped,  the  marble  block 
of  Sisyphus  stood  still,  and  Tantalus  forgot  his  raging 
thirst.  Pluto  and  his  consort  Persephone,  it  is  related, 
were  so  charmed  that  they  promised  to  restore  the 
beautiful  Eurydice,  on  the  condition  that  Orpheus 
would  not  look  back  while  passing  out  of  the  nether 
world.  To  this  he  readily  consented,  but  just  as  he 
was  nearing  the  regions  of  the  upper  air,  his  desire  to 
see  that  Eurydice  was  following,  overcame  him.  Look- 
ing round  he  beheld  her  caught  back  into  the  infernal 
regions,  and  on  frantically  attempting  to  follow  her, 
was  refused  admission,  and  never  saw  her  again.  His 
grief  for  her  loss  led  him  to  wander  aimlessly  about  the 
earth  until  his  death,  when  his  body  was  buried  with 
divine  honours  at  the  foot  of  Olympus,  while  his  lyre 
was  placed  by  Jupiter  among  the  stars  at  the  interces- 
sion of  Apollo  and  the  Muses. 

Shakespeare,  in  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  Act  III., 
Scene  2,  thus  refers  to  it: 

For  Orpheus'  lute  was  strung  with  poet's  sinews; 
Whose  golden  touch  could  soften  steel  and  stones, 
Make  tigers  tame,  and  huge  leviathans 
Forsake  unsounded  deeps  to  dance  on  sands. 


102  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Vega,  or  the  "Harp-Star,"  the  dazzling  leader  of  the 
constellation,  is  the  most  brilliant  star  in  the  northern 
hemisphere,  being  close  to  the  zero  rank.  And  though 
Capella  and  Arcturus,  its  companions  in  its  circuit 
around  the  pole,  are  its  close  rivals,  it  is  surpassed  in 
splendour  by  only  three  stars  in  the  entire  sky,  namely, 
Sirius,  Canopus,  and  Alpha  Centauri,  all  southern  stars. 
Canopus  and  Alpha  Centauri,  however,  lie  so  far  south 
that  they  cannot  be  seen  in  this  latitude. 

It  is  a  star  of  enormous  magnitude  and  shines  one 
hundred  times  more  brightly  than  the  sun  would  were 
it  as  far  off.  It  belongs  to  the  sirian  type  of  stars, 
and  hence  is  a  much  more  rarefied  body  than  either 
Capella  or  Arcturus  which  belong  to  the  solar  type. 
Then,  too,  if  the  supposition  that  the  solar  stars 
are  at  their  hottest  stage  is  correct,  Vega  is  not  so  hot 
as  either  of  these  stars.  It  has  the  distinction  of  being 
the  first  star  whose  spectrum  was  successfully  photo- 
graphed, Henry  Draper  having  taken  it  in  1872.  It 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  about  eleven  miles  a 
second.  So  distant  is  it — thirty-five  light  years- — that 
although  it  is  travelling  towards  the  solar  system  at  the 
rate  of  about  ten  miles  a  second,  and  the  solar  system 
is  moving  in  its  direction  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles 
in  the  same  period  of  time,  half  a  million  years  or  more 
must  elapse  before  the  sun  and  Vega  pass  by  each 
other. 

Some  fourteen  thousand  years  ago  Vega  was  the 
north  polar-star,  and  in  consequence  of  that  slow  shift 
of  direction  of  the  earth's  axis  called  Precession  it  will 
again  occupy  that  position  eleven  thousand  five  hun- 
dred years  hence. 

This  sapphire  sun  is  about  twenty  degrees  nearer 
the  north  star  than  Arcturus,  and  only  seven  degrees 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  103 

more  distant  from  it  than  Capella,  the  nearest  of  the 
bright  stars  to  the  pole.  Like  Capella,  it  is  so  far 
north  that  it  can  be  seen  in  this  latitude  at  some  hour 
of  every  clear  night  throughout  the  year.  An  opera 
glass  will  show  clearly  its  delicate  sapphire  hue,  and 
also  the  two  small,  yet  conspicuous,  stars,  Epsilon  and 
Zeta,  which  form  with  it  a  beautiful  little  triangle.  It 
has  a  telescopic,  bluish  companion  star  of  the  tenth 
magnitude  revolving  around  it.  It  rises  over  in  the 
far  north-east,  about  three  hours  after  Arcturus,  and 
is  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  pole  from  Capella.  It 
rises  nearly  at  the  hour  when  Rigel,  which  it  closely 
resembles  in  colour  and  magnitude,  is  setting  a  little 
to  the  south  of  west.  It  occupies  nine  hours  in  reach- 
ing the  meridian,  when  it  is  very  near  the  zenith.  It 
rises  when  the  sun  sets,  about  the  first  week  in  May, 
and  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  August  I2th.  On  any  clear 
night  throughout  July  and  August,  it  may  be  seen 
shining  with  great  brilliancy,  directly  overhead,  between 
nine  and  ten  o'clock. 

According  to  Chinese-Japanese  legend,  Vega  was 
called  the  "Spinning  Damsel,"  who  each  year,  on  the  7th 
of  July,  was  supposed  to  stand  at  one  end  of  the  Magpie 
Bridge  over  the  Milky  Way,  if  the  weather  was  clear, 
awaiting  the  coming  of  her  lover,  the  Shepherd-Boy 
star  Altair.  In  the  legend,  the  Shepherd-Boy  fell  in 
love  with  the  Spinning  Damsel,  much  to  her  father's 
anger,  who  banished  them  both  to  the  sky,  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  Milky  Way,  where  the  Shepherd-Boy  be- 
came Altair,  and  the  Spinning  Damsel,  Vega.  It  was 
decreed  by  the  father  that  they  should  meet  once  a 
year  if  they  could  contrive  to  cross  the  celestial  river. 
On  the  night  of  the  7th  of  July,  their  friends  the  mag- 
pies congregate  at  the  crossing-point  and  form  a  bridge 


104  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

over  which  the  lovers  pass.  After  twenty-four  hours 
the  bridge  disappears,  as  the  magpies  return  to  earth, 
and  so  the  lovers  cannot  meet  again  for  another  year. 
Serviso  mentions  that  in  Korea,  should  a  magpie  be 
found  in  its  usual  haunts  on  this  day,  the  children 
stone  it  for  shirking  its  duty. 

According  to  Lafcadio  Hearn,  this  story  of  the  Star 
Lovers  is  the  origin  of  the  Japanese  festival  called 
Tanabata.  Should  it  rain  at  the  time  set  for  the  cross- 
ing, the  meeting  cannot  take  place,  since  the  celestial 
river  would  become  too  wide  to  be  spanned  by  the 
Magpie  Bridge.  Hence,  rain  falling  on  the  Tanabata 
night  is  called  the  "Rain  of  Tears." 

To  the  ancient  Britons,  Lyra  was  known  as  "King 
Arthur's  Harp,"  to  the  early  Christians  as  "King 
David's  Harp,"  to  the  Persians  as  a  "Lyre,"  and  to  the 
Czechs  as  the  "Fiddle  in  the  Sky." 

About  eight  degrees  from  Vega,  and  next  to  it  in 
order  of  brightness,  is  Beta  Lyras,  or  Sheliak,  a  white, 
third-magnitude  star  (3.4)  and  one  of  the  most  noted 
and  interesting  of  short-period  variables.  During  a 
period  of  twelve  days,  twenty-one  hours,  and  forty- 
seven  minutes,  it  passes  through  two  minima,  only  the 
alternate  of  which  are  equal.  At  one  minimum  it  fades 
to  magnitude  3.9  and  at  the  other  to  4.5.  It  is  always 
a  naked-eye  object,  and  its  variations  are  readily  recog- 
nisable. It  is  an  easy  double  in  a  two-inch  instrument, 
and  a  triple  star  in  a  three-inch.  It  was  discovered  to 
be  a  variable  star  by  Goodricke  in  1784,  and  belongs  to 
that  type  in  which  the  mutually  eclipsing  bodies  are  un- 
equal and  both  bright.  Olcott  refers  to  it  as  one  of  the 
ten  stars  that  are  said  to  be  pear-shaped.  It  may  be 
found  by  drawing  an  imaginary  line  from  Vega  towards 
Altair,  when  it  will  pass  between  Beta  and  Gamma. 


Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory 

PLATE  VII.     Ring  Nebula  in  Lyra 


Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory 

PLATE  VIII.     Dumb-Bell  Nebula  in  Vulpecula 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  105 

Epsilon,  a  yellowish  coloured  star  of  the  fourth 
magnitude,  situated  on  the  frame  of  the  harp  close  to 
Vega,  is  a  very  curious  star,  and  is  known  as  a  "double 
double  star."  It  can  be  divided  into  two  stars  by  an 
opera-glass,  or  even  by  the  unassisted  eye.  Viewed  with 
a  small  telescope,  each  of  the  two  components  will  be 
found  to  be  again  double.  Gamma,  or  Sulafat,  about 
two  and  a  half  degrees  distant  from  Beta,  is  a  lustrous, 
yellow  star  of  rather  less  than  the  third  magnitude. 
It  is  a  spectroscopic  binary,  and  has  a  minute  distant 
bluish  companion  of  the  eleventh  magnitude.  Zeta 
also  is  a  double  star,  and  is  situated  about  two  degrees 
from  Epsilon.  It  is  a  topaz- tin  ted  star  of  the  fourth 
magnitude,  while  its  companion  is  greenish  in  colour, 
and  of  the  sixth  magnitude.  The  distance  be- 
tween the  components  is  a  little  over  two-fifths  of  a 
minute. 

Standing  on  a  line  between  the  stars  Beta  and  Gamma 
and  about  two-fifths  of  the  distance  from  the  former 
star,  is  the  celebrated  Ring  Nebula  (Plate  VII.) ,  the 
only  object  of  its  class  that  will  show  its  characteristic 
form  in  a  moderate-sized  telescope.  In  a  three-inch 
telescope,  it  presents  a  dim,  misty,  appearance,  and  is 
about  the  apparent  diameter  of  the  planet  Jupiter. 
In  a  more  powerful  instrument  the  nebulous  ring  ap- 
pears filled  with  excessively  delicate  nebula  with  a 
star-like  condensation  in  the  centre.  Wolf  finds  that, 
owing  to  rapid  rotation  of  the  ring,  the  four  gases  com- 
posing it  have  become  separated  into  four  different 
layers.  The  smaller  or  innermost  ring  is  composed  of 
an  unknown  gas,  the  next  layer  consists  of  hydrogen, 
the  next  consists  of  helium,  while  the  outermost  ring 
consists  of  another  unknown  gas. 

On  the  line  between  Hercules  and  Lyra  is  the  radiant 


io6  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

point  of  the  swift  meteors  of  April  2oth,  known  as  the 
"Lyrids,"  which  follow  the  track  of  the  comet  of  1861. 

Sagitta 

(The  Arrow) 

Immersed  in  the  Milky  Way,  north  of  Aquila  and 
south  of  Cygnus,  is  the  pretty  little  constellation 
Sagitta,  or  the  Arrow.  It  contains  five  stars  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  magnitudes  arranged  in  a  row  about 
seven  degrees  long,  resembling  an  arrow  pointing  east. 
The  stars  Alpha  and  Beta  form  the  butt  of  the  arrow 
and  Gamma  its  point.  A  line  drawn  from  Vega  to 
Albireo,  or  Beta  Cygni,  extended  eleven  degrees,  meets 
Gamma  and  is  almost  perpendicular  to  the  arrow. 

It  is  a  constellation  of  great  antiquity  and,  in  classic 
story,  has  been  identified  as  one  of  the  arrows  with 
which  Hercules  slew  the  vulture  that  gnawed  the  liver 
of  Prometheus,  when  chained  by  Jupiter's  order  to  a 
rock  on  the  top  of  Mount  Caucasus.  According  to 
Eratosthenes  it  was  the  arrow  with  which  Apollo  ex- 
terminated the  Cyclopes  for  having  furnished  Jupiter 
with  the  thunderbolts  and  lightning  to  kill  ^Esculapius. 
It  has  also  been  regarded  as  the  arrow  of  Cupid.  It 
culminates  at  9  P.M.  on  September  ist. 

Aratus  thus  refers  to  it : 

There's  further  shot  another  Arrow 

But  this  without  a  bow.     Towards  it  the  Bird 

More  northward  flies. 

Lying  between  Sagitta  and  Cygnus  is  a  small  and 
unimportant  constellation  known  as  Vulpecula,  the 
Fox.  It  is  interesting  telescopically  for  containing 
the  nebula  marked  27  M,  long  known  as  the  "Dumb- 
bell Nebula."  (Plate  VIII.) 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  107 

Scutum  Sobieskii 

(Sobieski's  Shield) 

The  inconspicuous  little  constellation  Scutum  Sobi- 
eskii, or  Sobieski's  Shield,  was  introduced  by  Hevelius 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  honour 
of  the  third  John  Sobieski,  the  heroic  King  of  Poland, 
who  defeated  the  Turks  under  the  walls  of  Vienna  and 
so  saved  Europe,  and  whose  coat  of  arms  the  figure 
represents.  It  occupies  a  little  triangular  space  situ- 
ated in  an  astonishingly  bright  part  of  the  Milky  Way, 
south-east  of  Aquila,  between  the  serpent's  tail  and 
the  head  of  the  Archer.  The  group  is  commonly 
known  as  "Scutum,"  and  embraces  one  fourth-magni- 
tude, and  five  fifth-magnitude  stars,  and  also  many 
fine  clusters.  According  to  Sir  William  Herschel  it 
contained  in  five  square  degrees  of  space  over  one- 
third  of  a  million  stars.  One  of  the  star-clouds,  a 
naked-eye  object,  which  has  been  photographed  by 
Barnard,  is  said  to  look  "like  a  gathering  of  fiery 
cirrocumuli,  and  yet  it  consists  of  nothing  but  stars." 

Aquila 

(The  Soaring  Eagle) 

South-east  of  Lyra  and  south  of  Cygnus,  lying  directly 
in  the  Milky  Way,  is  the  beautiful  and  striking  star- 
figure  called  Aquila,  the  "Flying"  or  "Soaring"  Eagle. 
It  occupies  a  prominent  position  in  the  night-sky  of 
summer  and  early  autumn,  and  is  frequently  joined 
with  Antinous,  a  constellation  invented  by  Tycho 
Brahe  as  one  asterism.  In  modern  catalogues  the 
double  constellation  is  generally  known  under  the  name 
Aquila.  It  is  figured  as  a  great  solitary  bird — an 
eagle — flying  towards  the  east  across  the  Milky  Way, 


io8  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

and  its  position  can  be  easily  found  by  its  three  principal 
stars  Alpha,  Beta,  and  Gamma.  The  three  stars  are 
close  together  and  form  a  straight  line,  about  five 
degrees  in  length,  which,  running  athwart  the  Milky 
Way,  points  in  a  northerly  direction  nearly  to  Vega, 
and  in  a  southerly  direction  to  Alpha  and  Beta  Capri- 
corni.  The  middle  star  is  the  brightest  and  is  called 
Altair,  and  the  lineal  figure,  the  "  Shaft  of  Altair." 
Sometimes  these  three  stars  have  been  mistaken  for  the 
three  gems  in  the  belt  of  Orion,  although  they  are  not 
so  bright.  They  are  never  so  alike  as  when  late  on  a 
mid-October  night  Orion  is  coming  up  in  the  east 
and  Aquila  is  going  down  in  the  west.  The  unevenness 
of  the  Aquila  stars  helps  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
stars  in  Orion's  belt,  which  are  markedly  uniform  both 
in  brilliance  and  spacing. 

The  Galaxy,  or  Milky  Way,  which  is  supposed  to  be  a 
vast  ring  of  enormously  distant  stars  made  up  of  sub- 
sidiary spirals  extending  around  the  celestial  sphere, 
is  especially  brilliant  in  this  constellation,  where  it 
spans  the  heavens,  like  a  great  dimly-luminous  arch, 
in  two  distinct  branches,  Aquila's  principal  stars  being 
near  the  eastern  edge  of  the  eastern  branch. 

Antinous,  a  youth  of  extraordinary  beauty,  in  honour 
of  whom  the  lower  portion  of  the  combined  constella- 
tion was  named,  was  born  in  Bithynia,  and  was  a  favour- 
ite of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  being  his  companion  in  all 
his  journeys.  He  was  drowned  in  the  Nile  A.D.  122, 
and  the  emperor  enrolled  him  among  the  gods.  So 
great  was  Hadrian's  grief  that  he  caused  a  temple  to 
be  erected  to  his  memory  at  Mantinea  in  Arcadia,  and 
founded  the  city  of  Antinoopolis  on  the  eastern  bank 
of  the  Nile  in  honour  of  him. 

According  to  Greek  fable  the  Flying,  or  Soaring, 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  109 

Eagle  was  the  bird  of  Jupiter  which  stood  by  his  throne, 
the  bearer  of  his  thunder,  about  which  Manilius  wrote: 

The  towering  Eagle  next  doth  boldly  soar, 

As  if  the  thunder  in  his  claws  he  bore: 

He's  worthy  Jove,  since  he,  a  bird,  supplies 

The  heavens  with  sacred  bolts,  and  arms  the  skies. 

This  famous  bird  is  represented  as  bearing  aloft  in 
his  talons  a  most  beautiful  boy,  sometimes  called 
Ganymedes,  a  shepherd-boy  of  Phrygia,  whom  Jupiter, 
desiring  him  for  his  cup-bearer  in  place  of  his  daughter 
Hebe  (who  awkwardly  tripped  and  fell  on  a  solemn 
occasion,  and  was  forced  to  resign  her  office),  sent  his 
eagle  to  seize  and  carry  off  from  Mount  Ida  up  to 
Olympus,  the  abode  of  the  gods.  Jupiter,  it  is  related, 
compensated  his  bereaved  parents,  Tros  (the  builder 
of  Troy)  and  Callirhoe,  for  their  loss,  by  a  pair  of  divine 
horses. 

Tennyson,  in  his  Palace  of  Art,  thus  describes  the 
picture  representing  the  legend  : 

Or  else  flush'd  Ganymede,  his  rosy  thigh 

Half -buried  in  the  eagle's  down, 
Sole  as  a  flying  star  shot  thro'  the  sky, 

Above  the  pillar'd  town. 

Ganymedes  has  also  been  identified  as  Aquarius,  the 
eleventh  sign  and  twelfth  zodiacal  constellation. 

The  curious  Oriental  legend  of  the  Star  Lovers  and 
the  Magpie  Bridge,  with  which  this  constellation  and 
Lyra  are  connected,  was  related  in  connection  with  the 
history  of  the  latter  constellation. 

The  brilliant  white  star  Altair,  or  Alpha  Aquilae,  the 
chief  star  of  the  constellation,  lies  in  the  Milky  Way, 


i io  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

about  twenty  degrees  below  Albireo  or  Beta  Cygni, 
and  on  a  line  drawn  from  Arcturus  through  the  head 
of  Hercules.  It  is  situated  in  the  neck  of  the  eagle 
and  makes  with  Vega  and  Deneb  a  conspicuous  acute- 
angled  triangle,  Alt  air  being  at  the  apex.  It  is  a 
fraction  brighter  than  the  first  magnitude,  and  belongs 
to  the  sirian  type  of  stars,  its  colour  showing  it  to  be  in 
an  early  stage  of  its  existence  as  a  glowing  star.  It  has 
a  distant  tenth -magnitude  companion  of  a  violet  tint. 

Alt  air  is  only  about  fourteen  light  years  distant,  has 
a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  eight  miles  a  second,  and  is 
approaching  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  over  twelve 
hundred  miles  a  minute,  or  more  than  six  hundred 
million  miles  a  year.  Next  to  Sinus  and  Procyon,  it  is 
the  nearest  first-magnitude  star  visible  from  northern 
latitudes.  It  sends  abroad  ten  times  more  light  than 
the  sun,  but  the  earth  receives  about  ninety  billion 
times  more  light  from  the  latter,  by  reason  of  its  near- 
ness, than  it  does  from  Altair.  It  is  one  of  the  stars 
from  which  the  moon's  distance  is  taken,  for  computing 
longitude  at  sea. 

It  rises  almost  eight  degrees  north  of  east,  and  takes 
six  hours  and  a  half  to  reach  the  meridian,  when  it  is 
about  two-thirds  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the 
zenith.  In  the  middle  of  June  it  rises  when  the  sun 
sets,  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  on  September  ist,  and  is  in 
view,  early  in  the  evening,  until  the  middle  of  December. 
Ovid  thus  alludes  to  its  rising: 

Now  view  the  skies, 
And  you'll  behold  Jove's  hook'd-bill  bird  arise. 

In  astrology  Altair  was  considered  to  be  a  star  of  ill 
omen,  and  portended  danger  from  reptiles. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  in 

The  uppermost  star,  next  above  Altair,  in  the  row 
of  bright  stars,  three  abreast,  already  referred  to  as 
pointing  to  Vega,  is  called  Gamma,  or  Tarazed,  and  the 
lowermost,  Beta,  or  Alshain.  Gamma  is  a  golden- 
yellow  tinted  star  of  the  third  magnitude  in  the  back 
of  the  eagle,  and  forms  a  pretty  contrast  with  white 
Altair.  Beta,  a  double  star  of  a  pale  orange  colour, 
in  the  neck  of  the  eagle  and  the  head  of  Antinous,  has, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  grown  dimmer  in  the  last 
three  hundred  years,  and  is  now  of  about  the  third  and 
a  half  magnitude.  Two  third-magnitude  stars,  Delta 
and  Lambda,  the  former  in  the  southern  wing  and  the 
latter  in  the  left  foot  of  Antinous,  lie  in  a  line  extending 
towards  Scutum. 

About  eight  degrees  below  Altair,  in  Antinous's  right 
shoulder,  is  Eta,  a  remarkable,  short-period  variable, 
which  changes  every  seven  days,  four  hours,  fourteen 
minutes,  and  four  seconds,  from  the  third-and-a-half 
magnitude,  to  the  fourth-and-a-half,  and  back  again. 
Its  variability  was  discovered  by  Pigott  in  1 784.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  a  spectroscopic  binary,  and  its  greatest 
brightness  continues  only  forty  hours.  It  is  a  star  of  a 
yellowish  colour,  easily  followed  with  the  unaided  eye, 
and  is  best  seen  in  the  early  autumn  evenings.  The 
greenish-tinted  third-magnitude  star  Zeta,  along  with 
Epsilon  of  the  fourth  magnitude,  about  two  degrees 
apart  and  twelve  degrees  north-west  of  Altair,  marks 
the  tip  of  the  tail.  Theta,  a  third-magnitude  star, 
in  line  with  the  three  stars,  Alpha,  Beta,  and  Gamma,  is 
in  the  right  wrist  of  Antinous.  The  variable  star  R, 
situated  about  midway  between  Zeta  and  Delta,  is  of 
a  deep  red  colour,  and  in  the  space  of  351  days  changes 
from  the  sixth-and-a-half  magnitude  to  the  eleventh,  and 
back  again. 


H2  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Sagittarius 

(The  Bow-man) 

The  ninth  sign  and  tenth  constellation  of  the  zodiac, 
Sagittarius,  the  Archer,  lies  near  the  southern  horizon, 
between  Scorpio  and  Capricornus,  in  a  region  crowded 
with  beautiful  nebulas  and  star  clusters.  It  contains 
one  star  of  about  the  second  magnitude,  ten  of  the 
third,  and  a  number  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  magnitudes, 
and  in  it  lies  the  most  southerly  point  of  the  zodiac. 
The  constellation  may  be  seen  during  July  and  August 
and  in  the  early  hours  of  the  evening  in  September.  It 
represents  a  centaur,  with  the  head  and  the  shoulders 
of  a  man  and  the  body  and  the  legs  of  a  horse,  with  bow 
drawn,  aiming  an  arrow  at  the  heart  of  the  scorpion. 

Longfellow,  in  his  Poet's  Calendar,  thus  refers  to  it: 

The  Centaur,  Sagittarius,  am  I, 

Born  of  Ixion's  and  the  cloud's  embrace: 

With  sounding  hoofs  across  the  earth  I  fly 
A  steed  Thessalian  with  a  human  face. 

The  group  of  stars  can  be  easily  recognised  by  a 
little  figure  resembling  a  straight-handled  dipper, 
turned  upside  down,  popularly  known  as  the  "Milk 
Dipper,"  because  it  lies  partly  in  the  Milky  Way.  This 
little  dipper  was  known  to  the  ancients  as  the  "  Ladle," 
and  is  formed  by  five  stars  of  the  third  and  fourth 
magnitudes,  namely,  Zeta,  Tau,  Sigma,  Phi,  and  Lambda 
and  is  quite  conspicuous  during  August  and  September. 
The  inverted  bowl  of  a  larger  dipper  is  outlined  by  the 
stars  Zeta,  Sigma,  Lambda,  and  Delta,  of  which  Gamma 
forms  a  short  handle.  The  two  dippers  are  nearly 
seventy  degrees  south  of  Vega,  and  are  about  as  far 
south  of  the  equator  as  Vega  is  north  of  it.  A  line 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  113 

drawn  from  Deneb  through  Altair  will,  if  produced, 
pass  through  the  centre  of  the  constellation. 

The  upright,  curved  line  of  stars,  on  the  right, 
formed  by  the  second-magnitude  star  Epsilon,  or  Kaus 
Australis,  the  third-magnitude  star  Delta,  or  Kaus 
Meridionalis,  and  the  fourth-magnitude  star  Lambda, 
or  Kaus  Borealis,  represents  the  bent  bow  of  the 
archer.  Gamma,  or  Al-Nasl,  a  third-magnitude  star, 
a  little  west  of  Delta,  marks  the  arrow's  tip.  Whilst 
Zeta,  or  Ascella,  a  bright  third-magnitude  star,  a  little 
below  Sigma,  or  Nunki,  indicates  the  arrow  drawn  back 
by  the  right  hand  of  the  archer  and  about  to  be  shot 
westward  from  the  bow,  which  lies  in  the  Milky  Way. 
By  a  certain  linking  up  of  the  stars,  two  bows  can  be 
outlined,  one  behind  the  other,  the  rear  one  display- 
ing a  broken  arrow. 

North  of  the  fourth-magnitude  star  Tau,  Pi  of  the 
third  magnitude,  and  Omicron  of  the  fourth  magnitude, 
along  with  three  smaller  stars,  mark  the  head  of  the 
centaur.  Alpha,  or  Rukbat,  and  Beta,  or  Arkab,  both 
fourth-magnitude  stars  in  the  left  leg,  lie  too  far  south 
to  be  seen  in  this  latitude. 

The  sun  enters  the  constellation  Sagittarius  on 
December  i6th,  and  occupies  it  until  January  i8th, 
reaching  the  most  southerly  point  of  its  path  on  Decem- 
ber 2 1  st.  On  December  3ist,  when  the  sun  is  in  the 
middle  of  the  constellation,  the  earth  is  closer  to  the 
sun  than  at  any  other  time,  and  is  then  travelling  most 
rapidly  in  its  course. 

According  to  Greek  fable,  the  Archer  was  the  famous 
centaur,  Chiron,  son  of  Saturn  and  Philyra,  who 
changed  himself  into  a  horse  to  elude  the  jealous  en- 
quiry of  his  wife  Rhea.  He  was  famed  for  his  skill  in 
medicine,  music,  and  archery,  and  instructed  in  the 

8 


ii4  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

liberal  arts  some  of  the  greatest  heroes  of  his  time.  He 
taught  ^Esculapius  medicine,  Apollo  music,  and  Her- 
cules astronomy.  Being  accidentally  wounded  by  his 
friend  Hercules  with  an  arrow  that  had  been  dipped  in 
the  blood  of  the  Lernasan  monster,  Chiron,  realising 
that  the  wound  was  incurable,  prayed  Jupiter  to  de- 
prive him  of  immortality,  that  he  might,  by  dying,  be 
relieved  from  his  excruciating  pains.  Jupiter  granted 
his  request,  and  translated  him  to  a  place  among  the 
constellations. 

Midst  golden  stars  he  stands  refulgent  now, 
And  thrusts  the  Scorpion  with  his  bended  bow. 

OVID. 

In  astrology,  Sagittarius  is  the  House  and  Joy  of 
Jupiter.  Those  born  between  November  22 d  and  De- 
cember 2  ist  are  said  to  be  ruled  by  this  sign.  It  is 
considered  a  lucky  sign,  and  masculine.  Dunkin  says 
that  Arcandum,  an  old  astrologist,  who  published  a 
book  in  1542,  declared  that  a  person  born  under  the 
sign  Sagittarius,  "is  to  be  thrice  wedded,  to  be  very 
fond  of  vegetables,  to  become  a  matchless  tailor,  and 
to  have  three  special  illnesses ";  but  as  the  last  attack 
of  sickness  is  to  befall  the  patient  at  eighty  years  of 
age,  it  is  not  of  paramount  moment. 

The  archer  was  the  tribal  symbol  of  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh.  Not  far  from  Mu,  a  pale  yellow  multiple 
star  of  the  fourth  magnitude,  in  the  north  tip  of  the 
archer's  bow,  is  the  grand  cluster  24  M,  visible  to  the 
naked  eye.  A  little  south-west  of  Mu  is  the  famous 
cluster  8  M,  also  a  naked-eye  object.  It  can  be  found 
by  drawing  a  line  from  the  star  Phi  to  Lambda,  and 
extending  it  an  equal  distance.  It  is  said  to  be  a  cluster 
superposed  upon  a  fine  nebula.  Two  of  the  most 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  IX.     Star-Cloud  and  Black  Holes  in  Sagittarius 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  115 

marvellous  so-called  " coal-sacks'* — dark  spots  where 
no  stars  appear — photographed  by  Barnard  (Plate 
IX.),  are  in  this  cluster.  To  the  north  of  this  is  the 
rich  and  celebrated  nebula  marked  20  M,  discovered 
in  1764,  and  sometimes  called  the  "Trifid  Nebula," 
a  large  gaseous  nebula  of  strange  shape,  traversed  by 
dark  rifts,  as  though  it  had  been  torn  asunder  by 
some  wandering  star  drifting  through  it.  The  famous 
"Omega  Nebula"  marked  17  M,  thus  named  from  its 
alleged  resemblance  to  the  Greek  letter  Omega,  is  a 
fine,  large,  and  bright  object,  easily  seen  with  a  small 
telescope. 

Centaurus 

(The  Centaur) 

Lying  between  Hydra  and  the  far-famed  Southern 
Cross  is  the  large  and  brilliant  constellation  Centaurus, 
the  Centaur.  It  is  in  the  southern  sky  so  low  down 
that  the  main  part  of  it  can  be  seen  only  in  southern 
latitudes.  Some  of  its  northernmost  stars  are,  how- 
ever, visible  in  middle  latitudes  from  June  to  July.  It 
is  noted  for  having  as  its  leader  the  nearest  of  all  the 
stars,  the  celebrated  Alpha  Centauri,  whose  parallax 
was  ascertained  by  Henderson  in  1839. 

Alpha  Centauri  is  a  brilliant  white  star  of  nearly  the 
zero  magnitude,  ranking  next  to  Canopus,  and  lies  in 
the  line  of  the  Milky  Way.  It  is  a  beautiful  binary, 
the  smaller  component  being  almost  of  the  first  magni- 
tude, with  a  period  of  revolution  of  about  eighty-one 
years.  It  is  four  and  a  third  light  years  distant,  has 
a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  over  fourteen  miles  a  second, 
and  is  approaching  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of 
thirteen  and  a  half  miles  a  second.  Beta  Centauri  is 


ii6  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

a  brilliant  white  star  of  nearly  the  zero  magnitude, 
about  four  degrees  from  Alpha.  It  is  eighty-eight 
light  years  distant,  and  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion 
of  over  three  miles  a  second.  These  two  stars,  neither 
of  which  can  be  seen  in  these  latitudes,  are  in  the  fore- 
feet of  the  Centaur,  and  are  sometimes  called  the 
"Southern  Pointers,"  because  a  line  drawn  from  Alpha 
through  Beta  will  point  towards  the  Southern  Cross, 
which  is  about  thirty  degrees  from  the  South  Pole. 

Centaurus  is  further  noted  as  containing  the  richest 
and  most  remarkable  globular  star  cluster  in  the  whole 
heavens.  This  famous  cluster,  which  is  known  as 
Omega  Centauri,  is  a  closely  compressed  cluster  of 
thousands  of  stars,  and  upon  a  clear  dark  night  is 
vivsible  to  the  unaided  eye  as  a  hazy  star,  in  lustre 
similar  to  a  star  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  magnitude.  In 
the  telescope  it  is  a  wonderful  object,  but  can  only  be 
seen  in  the  southern  hemisphere.  Like  its  northern 
rival — the  Hercules  cluster — it  is  populous  with  variable 
stars. 

Hercules 

(The  Kneeling  Hero) 

The  large  and  important  but  straggling  group  of 
stars  lying  below  the  head  of  the  Dragon,  east  of  Bootes 
and  the  Northern  Crown,  north  of  Ophiuchus,  and 
west  of  Lyra,  is  known  as  the  constellation  Hercules. 
It  is  not  a  brilliant  constellation,  having  no  star  brighter 
than  the  third  magnitude,  but  is  interesting  telescop- 
ically  on  account  of  the  many  double  stars,  clusters,  and 
nebulae  it  contains.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest  star-groups 
and  in  the  early  lists  is  often  called  the  "Kneeler." 

The  constellation  was  intended  to  immortalise  the 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  117 

name  of  Hercules,  who  is  usually  represented  as  in- 
vested with  the  skin  of  the  Nemaean  lion,  swinging  in 
his  right  hand  a  brass  club,  the  gift  of  Vulcan,  and 
holding  in  his  left  an  apple  branch  in  which  serpents 
are  entangled. 

Bryant,  in  The  Constellations,  alludes  to  him  as: 

Hercules  with  flashing  mace. 

The  celebrated  giant  is  figured  as  standing  feet  up- 
ward in  the  sky,  with  his  left  foot,  pointed  out  by 
Gamma,  on  the  head  of  the  great  dragon,  and  his  head, 
indicated  by  the  star  Ras  Algethi,  nearly  touching 
that  of  Ophiuchus.  The  group  is  most  easily  recognised 
by  the  striking  figure,  sometimes  called  the  "keystone/1 
made  by  the  stars,  Pi,  in  the  right  thigh,  Epsilon  and 
Zeta,  in  the  abdomen,  and  Eta  in  the  left  thigh.  The 
constellation,  which  is  estimated  to  be  about  twenty 
million  million  miles  distant,  extends  to  within  four 
degrees  of  the  equator,  and  is  best  seen  from  May  to 
October. 

According  to  Greek  fable,  Hercules,  one  of  the  great- 
est heroes  of  remote  antiquity,  was  the  son  of  Jupiter 
by  Alcmene  of  Thebes,  a  granddaughter  of  Perseus. 
While  yet  a  babe  in  his  cradle,  the  jealous  Juno  sent 
two  serpents  to  destroy  Hercules,  but  the  infant  hero 
strangled  them  with  his  own  hands.  He  was  educated 
by  the  centaur  Chiron,  and  as  he  grew  up  was  instructed 
by  Amphytrion  in  driving  a  chariot,  by  Autolycus  in 
wrestling,  by  Eurytus  in  archery,  by  Castor  in  fighting 
with  heavy  armour,  and  by  Linus  in  singing  and  playing 
the  lyre. 

On  the  command  of  Jupiter,  by  the  cunning  artifice 
of  Juno,  he  was  subjected  to  the  will  of  Eurystheus,  his 


n8  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

elder  half-brother,  for  the  space  of  twelve  years,  and 
was  promised  immortality  if,  among  other  achievements, 
he  performed  twelve  difficult  tasks  for  Eurystheus, 
universally  known  as  the  "twelve  labours  of  Hercules." 

Let  Hercules  himself  do  what  he  may, 

The  cat  will  mew,  and  dog  will  have  his  day. 

SHAKESPEARE,  Hamlet,  Act  V.,  Scene  I. 

Sometime  after  completing  his  twelve  labours, 
Hercules  unwittingly  put  on  a  tunic  that  had  been 
steeped  in  the  poisonous  blood  of  the  centaur  Nessus, 
whom  he  had  slain  with  a  poisoned  arrow.  It  caused 
him  terrible  torture,  to  escape  which  he  ascended 
Mount  (Eta,  where  he  erected  a  great  funeral  pyre, 
spread  out  the  skin  of  the  Nemasan  lion,  placed  him- 
self upon  it,  and  ordered  Philoctetes,  a  son  of  Pceas 
the  shepherd,  to  whom  he  had  given  his  bow  and  arrows, 
to  set  it  on  fire.  When  the  pyre  was  burning,  a  cloud 
came  down  from  heaven  and,  amid  peals  of  thunder, 
carried  him  up  to  " many-peaked  Olympus,"  where  he 
was  honoured  with  immortality,  became  reconciled 
to  Juno,  and  married  her  daughter  Hebe,  for  a  time 
the  cup-bearer  of  the  immortals. 

Almighty  Jove 

In  his  swift  car  his  honour 'd  offspring  drove; 
High  o'er  the  hollow  clouds  the  coursers  fly, 
And  lodge  the  hero  in  the  starry  sky. 

OVID. 

The  chief  star  of  the  constellation  Ras  Algethi,  or 
Alpha  Herculis,  in  the  head  of  the  giant,  is  a  double 
star  of  the  third  magnitude,  of  especial  charm  and 
beauty.  It  may  be  easily  found  by  drawing  an  imagin- 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  119 

ary  line  from  Pi  through  Delta,  and  continuing  it  for 
the  same  distance.  Then,  too,  it  may  be  known  by 
its  orange-red  colour,  and  by  a  white  star  Ras  Alhague, 
or  Alpha  Ophiuchi,  about  five  degrees  east  of  it,  with 
which  it  makes  a  wide  pair.  It  is  an  irregularly  vari- 
able star,  and  at  its  minimum  is  of  somewhat  less  than 
the  fifth  magnitude.  Its  variability  was  discovered 
by  Sir  William  Herschel  in  1795.  Its  companion  star, 
which  is  about  five  seconds  of  arc  distant,  is  of  the 
sixth  magnitude,  and  of  an  emerald  or  bluish-green 
colour.  Ras  Algethi  forms  an  isosceles  triangle  with 
Beta  or  Kornephoros  and  Delta,  two  third-magnitude 
stars  in  the  shoulder. 

The  constellation  is  teeming  with  beautiful  double 
stars,  which  seem  to  display  much  more  variety  of 
colour  than  do  single  stars. 

Those  double  stars 
Whereof  the  one  more  bright 
Is  circled  by  the  other. 

TENNYSON. 

The  most  interesting  physical  double  in  Hercules  is 
Zeta,  a  third-magnitude  star  of  a  yellowish  colour, 
with  a  companion  of  about  the  sixth  magnitude,  and 
of  a  bluish-green  tint.  It  is  situated  in  the  belt,  near 
Epsilon,  between  Gamma,  in  the  Northern  Crown,  and 
Vega,  and  its  distance  is  about  twenty-three  light  years. 
It  is  a  very  close  binary  and  the  period  of  revolution 
is  about  thirty-four  years.  Its  duplicity  was  first 
discovered  by  Sir  William  Herschel  in  1782.  Gamma, 
another  double,  of  nearly  the  third  magnitude  in  the 
right  arm,  is  of  a  white  colour,  and  has  an  eighth- 
magnitude  companion  of  a  lilac  hue.  Delta,  also  of 
nearly  the  third  magnitude,  is  of  a  pale-green  colour, 


120  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

with  a  companion  star  of  the  eighth  magnitude  and  of 
a  bluish  colour. 

Mu,  a  yellowish  star  of  the  third-and-a-half  magnitude 
in  the  left  forearm,  has  an  eighth-magnitude  companion 
of  a  bluish  colour,  and  is  about  thirty-one  light  years 
distant.  Rho  is  a  beautiful  white  star  of  the  fourth 
and  a  half  magnitude,  with  a  green  companion  star  of 
about  the  sixth  magnitude.  Kappa,  or  Marfik,  a 
yellowish  fourth-magnitude  star,  in  the  right  hand,  has 
a  sixth-magnitude  companion  of  a  pale  red  colour. 
The  star  95  is  a  double,  peculiar  in  its  colouring,  in 
that  one  star  is  red  and  the  other  green,  while  the  com- 
ponents are  both  of  about  the  fifth  magnitude. 

Hercules  has  a  remarkable  cluster  of  stars  (Plate  X.) 
situated  about  one-third  of  the  distance  between  the 
stars  Eta  and  Zeta,  east  of  and  close  to  the  Northern 
Crown.  It  is  the  most  magnificent  cluster  visible  to 
northern  observers,  and  is  known  as  13  M  (that  is  to 
say,  the  I3th  in  Messier 's  Catalogue),  or  the  "Great 
Cluster  in  Hercules."  It  is  one  of  the  supreme  marvels 
of  the  universe,  and  is  surpassed  in  richness  by  only 
two  clusters  in  the  entire  heavens,  namely  its  southern 
sisters  Omega  Centauri  and  47  Toucanis.  On  a  very 
clear  dark  night  it  is  just  visible  as  a  dim  speck  to  the 
naked  eye,  and  in  a  small  telescope  it  looks  like  a  small 
nebula,  while  with  the  aid  of  a  powerful  instrument  it  is 
resolved  into  a  universe  of  stars.  It  is  roughly  spheri- 
cal in  outline,  and  there  are  crowded  within  its  borders 
over  six  thousand  stars,  packed  so  closely  together 
that  the  central  part  is  simply  a  uniform  blaze  of  light. 
According  to  Irving  it  appears  to  be  surrounded  by 
long,  spirally  radiating  wisps  of  nebulous  matter  in 
which  other  stars  are  entangled.  Recent  photographs 
taken  with  the  sixty-inch  mirror  of  the  Mount  Wilson 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  X.     Star-Cluster  in  Hercules 


Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory 

PLATE  XI.     Lace  Nebula  in  Cygnus 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  121 

Observatory  show,  it  is  said,  not  six  thousand,  but 
sixty  thousand  stars.  Halley,  who  discovered  it  in 
1714,  alluded  to  it  as  one  of  the  six  nebulae  known  at 
that  time.  Like  Omega  Centauri,  of  which  it  is  almost 
an  exact  duplicate,  it  abounds  in  variable  stars. 

Cygnus 

(The  Flying  Swan) 

Situated  in  the  midst  of  the  Milky  Way,  east  of  Lyra, 
and  south  of  Cepheus,  is  Cygnus,  the  "Flying  Swan," 
one  of  the  finest  constellations  in  the  northern  sky.  It 
is  represented  by  a  figure  of  a  star-spangled  swan,  with 
wide-spread  wings,  flying  down  the  Milky  Way,  toward 
the  south-west. 

Smith,  in  Come  Learn  of  the  Stars,  thus  alludes  to  it : 

Yonder  goes  Cygnus,  the  Swan,  flying  southward, — 
Sign  of  the  Cross,  and  of  Christ  unto  me. 

Cygnus  is  a  prominent  object  in  the  summer  night- 
sky,  and  contains  one  star  of  the  second  magnitude, 
five  of  the  third,  and  a  number  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and 
sixth  magnitudes.  It  is  visible  from  May  to  December, 
and  is  easily  recognised  by  its  most  striking  feature, 
the  beautiful  Northern  Cross.  The  upright  piece  of 
the  cross,  lying  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the  Milky  Way, 
is  over  twenty  degrees  in  length  and  is  formed  by  the 
bright  stars  Alpha,  Gamma,  and  Beta,  together  with 
a  few  faint  stars,  which  also  represent  the  outstretched 
neck,  body,  and  tail  of  the  flying  swan.  The  arms  of 
the  cross  and  the  outstretched  wings  of  the  "Bird" 
are  marked  by  the  stars  Delta,  Gamma,  Epsilon,  and 
Zeta.  Sadr,  or  Gamma,  the  bright  third-magnitude 


122  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

star  at  the  intersection  of  the  upright  and  the  cross- 
piece,  is  about  eighteen  degrees  south-east  of  Vega, 
midst  a  rich  stream  of  faint  stars.  This  cross  is  larger 
and  more  perfect  than  the  far-famed  Southern  Cross, 
a  small  constellation  near  the  south  celestial  pole, 
although  its  stars  are  perhaps  not  so  brilliant.  The 
early  Christians  regarded  it  as  the  "Cross  of  Calvary." 
Olcott,  in  his  scholarly  work  Star  Lore  of  All  Ages,  thus 
beautifully  alludes  to  it  as  it  appears  on  Christmas  eve: 

At  nine  o'clock,  this  brilliant  cross  of  stars  stands  upright 
on  the  western  hills,  outlined  against  the  sky,  as  if  beckon- 
ing all  beholders  onward  and  upward.  A  beautiful  symbol 
of  the  Christian  faith,  glorious,  perfect,  and  eternal. 

The  constellation  Cygnus  is  rich  in  interesting  vari- 
ables, and  in  it  are  situated  the  brightest  parts  of  the 
Milky  Way,  in  the  northern  hemisphere.  The  "great 
bifurcation,"  which  reaches  to  Centaurus  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  begins  here.  Between  the  stars  Alpha, 
Gamma,  and  Epsilon,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
dark  gaps  in  the  Milky  Way,  known  as  the  "Northern 
Coal-sack." 

According  to  some  authorities,  the  constellation  re- 
presents the  swan  into  which  Jupiter  transformed 
himself,  when,  incognito,  he  visited  Leda,  wife  of 
Tyndarus,  King  of  Sparta.  Others  suppose  it  to  be 
Cycnus,  son  of  Sthenelus,  King  of  the  Ligurians,  and 
an  intimate  friend  and  relative  of  Phaethon,  that 
unhappy  youth  with  whom  the  horses  of  the  sun  ran 
away.  The  legend  relates  that  while  he  was  lamenting 
the  untimely  fate  of  Phaethon  and  the  melancholy 
end  of  his  sisters,  on  the  banks  of  the  Eridanus,  he  was 
metamorphosed  by  Apollo  into  a  swan,  and  placed 
among  the  stars. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  123 

In  the  tenth  book  of  his  JEneid,  Virgil  wrote: 

For  Cycnus  loved  unhappy  Phaethon, 
And  sung  his  loss  in  poplar  groves  alone, 
Beneath  the  sister  shades  to  soothe  his  grief. 
Heaven  heard  his  song  and  hastened  his  relief, 
And  changed  to  snowy  plumes  his  hoary  hair, 
And  winged  his  flight  to  sing  aloft  in  air. 

Deneb,  or  Alpha  Cygni,  sometimes  called  Arided, 
the  leading  star  of  the  constellation,  is  a  brilliant  white 
star  of  rather  less  than  the  first  magnitude.  It  is 
situated  at  the  head  of  the  cross  and  the  root  of  the 
swan's  tail,  in  one  of  the  densest  parts  of  the  Milky 
Way,  and  is  about  six  degrees  farther  north  than  Vega, 
and  one  degree  farther  south  than  Capella.  A  line 
drawn  from  Alpheratz,  in  the  Square  of  Pegasus,  to 
Vega,  will  pass  close  by  it.  Then,  too,  it  fofms  with 
Polaris  and  Vega  a  right-angled  triangle,  the  right 
angle  being  at  Deneb. 

Deneb  is  a  star  of  the  same  general  type  as  Sinus, 
though  perhaps  a  little  more  advanced  in  develop- 
ment. It  is  one  of  the  most  remote  of  the  bright  stars, 
approximate  measurements  placing  it  at  about  350 
light  years.  It  is  approaching  the  solar  system  at  the 
rate  of  thirty  miles  a  second.  It  rises  in  the  far 
north-east,  and  reaches  the  meridian,  to  the  north 
of  the  zenith,  in  about  ten  hours.  It  rises  when  the 
sun  sets  about  the  middle  of  May,  and  culminates  at 
9  P.M.,  September  i6th.  Like  Capella  and  Vega,  it  is 
visible  at  some  hour  of  the  night  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year,  in  this  latitude. 

The  star  at  the  foot  of  the  cross  and  in  the  beak  of 
the  swan  is  Albireo,  or  Beta  Cygni,  a  fine  double  star 
of  the  third  magnitude,  notable  on  account  of  the 


124  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

charming  contrast  in  the  colours  of  its  components, 
which  are  about  thirty-four  seconds  of  arc  apart.  It 
is  readily  resolved  by  a  small  telescope,  and  is  an  easy 
object  in  even  a  strong  binocular  or  field-glass.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  attractive  double  stars 
in  the  entire  heavens.  The  larger  star  is  orange-yellow, 
and  the  smaller,  which  is  a  fifth-and-a-half  magnitude 
star,  is  sapphire-blue.  It  is  approaching  the  solar 
system  at  the  rate  of  about  fifteen  miles  a  second. 

The  faint  little  star  called  "61  Cygni"  is  a  most 
interesting  double,  famous  as  being  the  first  star  whose 
distance  was  (in  1838)  accurately  measured  by  the 
Prussian  astronomer  Bessel.  The  principal  star  is  of 
a  golden-yellow  colour,  and  of  about  the  fifth-and-a- 
half  magnitude,  while  its  companion  is  of  the  same 
colour,  and  of  rather  less  than  the  sixth  magnitude. 
It  is  barely  visible  to  the  naked  eye  on  a  clear  night, 
but  is  easy  to  find  with  the  aid  of  a  binocular.  It  is 
situated  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  cross  from  Vega, 
six  degrees  from  Gienah  or  Epsilon  in  the  right  or  east 
wing,  and  forms  a  fairly  well-marked  parallelogram  with 
Alpha,  Gamma,  and  Epsilon.  61  Cygni  is  one  of  the 
nearer  stars  in  the  sky,  being  only  io£  light  years 
distant.  It  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  49^ 
miles  a  second,  a  large  speed  as  stellar  motions  go, 
and  is  approaching  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of 
thirty-nine  miles  in  the  same  period  of  time. 

About  half-way  between  Deneb  and  Delta  is  Omicron, 
an  orange-coloured  fourth-magnitude  star,  which,  in 
an  opera-glass  or  field-glass,  will  be  seen  to  have  two 
companions  of  a  bluish  colour,  one  being  of  the  fifth 
and  the  other  of  the  seventh  magnitude. 

The  constellation  is  replete  with  nebulous  clouds, 
and  contains  many  deeply  coloured  red  and  orange 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XII.     The  North  America  Nebula  in  Cygnus 


The  Night-Sky  of  Summer  125 

stars,  hence  this  somewhat  crowded  portion  of  the 
heavens  has  been  styled  by  some  the  "Red  Region  of 
Cygnus."  Not  far  from  Beta,  in  the  neck  of  the  swan, 
is  the  long-period  variable  star  Chi  Cygni.  In  a  period 
of  406  days,  which  is  gradually  lengthening,  it  changes 
from  the  fourth-and-a-half  to  the  thirteenth-and-a- 
half  magnitude,  reaching  its  maximum  brightness  in 
about  105  days.  It  is  a  fine  red  star,  and  its  varia- 
bility was  discovered  by  Kirch  in  1686. 

The  Lace  Nebula,  known  as  N.  G.  C.  6992  (Plate  XI.) 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  nebulae  in  the  constellation, 
but  unfortunately  it  is  not  within  the  range  of  small 
telescopes.  Another  remarkable  object,  invisible  how- 
ever to  the  naked  eye,  is  the  diffused  nebula  known  as 
the  "North  America"  nebula  in  Cygnus  (Plate  XII.). 
It  was  discovered  by  Wolf  and  received  its  name  from 
its  shape,  resembling,  as  it  does,  the  map  of  North 
America. 

On  the  24th  of  November,  1876,  a  temporary  star  of 
the  third  magnitude  appeared  in  the  constellation,  but 
it  faded  so  rapidly  that  in  six  days  it  was  only  of  the 
fifth  magnitude,  afterwards  apparently  changing  into 
a  nebula. 

The  "Royal  Family"  of  the  sky — the  celestial  repre- 
sentatives of  Cepheus,  Cassiopeia,  Andromeda,  and 
Perseus — occupying,  as  they  do,  a  conspicuous  position 
in  the  night-sky  of  autumn,  will  receive  attention  in 
the  next  chapter. 

O,  sweet  summer,  pass  not  soon, 

Stay  awhile  the  harvest  moon; 

O  sweetest  summer,  do  not  go, 

For  autumn's  next,  and  next  the  snow. 

CHRISTINA  ROSSETTI,  in  Seasons. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  AUTUMN 

Referring  to  the  vine-leafed  autumn  (autumnus  pampincus),  Virgil, 
addressing  his  second  Georgic  to  Bacchus,  writes  : 

To  thee  his  joys  the  jolly  autumn  owes, 
When  the  fermenting  juice  the  vat  o'erflows. 

WHEN  the  sun  arrives  at  the  autumnal  equinox, 
about  the  23d  of  September,  ic  marks  the  beginning  of 
autumn  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  and  of  spring 
in  the  southern  hemisphere.  On  that  day,  as  at  the 
vernal  equinox  about  the  2ist  of  March,  the  sun  is 
perpendicular  over  the  equator,  and  day  and  night  are 
of  equal  length  all  over  the  earth.  - 

With  the  slow  changing  of  the  seasons  the  great, 
faint,  summer  groups  of  stars  are  slowly  sinking  in  the 
west.  The  straggling  Hercules  and  the  brilliant  Lyra 
are  now  low  in  the  western  sky,  while  the  beautiful 
Northern  Cross  is  a  little  west  of  the  zenith.  The  stars 
of  Bootes  and  the  little  circular  group  of  the  Northern 
Crown  are  about  setting  in  the  north-west,  while  over 
in  the  south-west  are  the  three  stars  of  the  Flying  Eagle 
which  form  the  beautiful  "shaft  of  Altair. "  Ophiuchus 
and  his  Serpent  are  low  down  on  the  western  horizon, 
the  Scorpion  has  disappeared  in  the  south-west,  and  the 
Archer  is  fast  sinking  from  view. 
,  Almost  exactly  overhead,  between  the  zenith  and 

126 


CHART 
FOR  ABOUT  SEPT.  23 


AUG. 15,  MIDNIGHT 
SEP.  I,  IIP.M 
SEP.  15,10  P.M 
OCT.  I.  9    P.M. 
OCT.  15. 8  P.M. 
NOV.  1,7  P.M. 
NOV.  15,6  P.M. 


PATH  OF  PLANETS 

INTHE 
ZODIACAL  BAND 


THE  ZODIACAL  BAND 
EXTENDSS'ON  EACH 
SIDE  OFTHE  ECLIPTIC. 


O  O    * 

i*  a* 


SterMagTiituctes 


W  4* 'to 6T1/ 'and under] 
&    iff 


CHART  111-AUTUMN  NIGHT  SKY 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  127 

Polaris,  and  westward  from  Cassiopeia  is  Cepheus,  with 
his  gem  the  so-called  "Garnet  Star."  South-east  of 
the  zenith,  and  nearly  east  of  the  Swan,  is  Pegasus, 
with  its  noble  stellar  figure,  the  Great  Square  of  Pega- 
sus. Close  to  the  winged  horse  is  Equus  or  Equuleus, 
the  Foal,  while  west  of  the  Square  of  Pegasus,  and  east 
of  the  Flying  Eagle,  is  the  little,  diamond-shaped  con- 
stellation, Delphinus,  or  Job's  Coffin.  On  the  meridian 
and  on  the  ecliptic,  below  Pegasus,  is  the  Water-bearer, 
and  directly  beneath  it,  near  the  horizon,  and  east  of 
the  meridian,  is  Fomalhaut,  the  leading  star  of  the 
Southern  Fish,  a  conspicuous  object  on  clear  autumn 
nights.  West  and  north  of  the  Southern  Fish,  heading 
westward,  is  the  constellation  Capricornus,  the  Sea- 
goat  or  Goat-fish.  East  of  the  Southern  Fish,  and 
south  of  the  Water-bearer,  is  the  small  and  unimportant 
southern  constellation  Sculptor.  Skirting  the  horizon 
in  the  south-east  is  Cetus,  the  Whale,  or  Sea-monster, 
with  its  variable  Mira,  the  "Wonderful."  Directly 
above  the  whale  is  the  long  line  of  stars  forming  the 
constellation  Pisces,  or  the  Fishes,  in  which  lies  the 
vernal  equinox.  North-east  of  the  Fishes,  and  above 
the  head  of  the  Whale,  is  the  small  but  distinguished 
asterism  Aries,  or  the  Ram. 

High  in  the  eastern  sky,  approaching  the  meridian, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  pole  from  The  Dipper,  along 
the  course  of  the  Milky  Way,  is  the  constellation 
Cassiopeia,  or  the  "Lady  in  the  Chair,"  with  its  dis- 
torted celestial  letter  "W."  Rising  in  the  north-east 
is  the  Charioteer,  marked  by  the  brilliant  yellow  solar 
star,  Capella,  between  which  and  Cassiopeia,  east  of 
the  zenith,  is  Perseus  with  his  Demon  Star  and  Great 
Cluster.  Above  the  Great  Square  of  Pegasus,  between 
it  and  Perseus,  is  the  constellation  Andromeda  the 


128  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

"Chained  Lady, "  with  its  great  and  superb  nebula 
visible  to  the  naked  eye  on  a  clear  night.  Stretching 
from  Polaris  to  Perseus,  Auriga,  and  the  Tiger,  is 
Camelopardalis,  the  Giraffe.  Low  down  on  the  north- 
ern horizon,  The  Dipper  is  approaching  the  lower 
meridian  from  the  west,  and  above  it  are  the  body  and 
head  of  the  Dragon.  Just  emerging  from  the  ground 
along  the  eastern  horizon,  a  little  north  of  east,  is 
Taurus,  with  its  standard  first-magnitude  star  Alde- 
baran,  and  its  wonderful  star-groups,  the  Hyades  and 
Pleiades.  Passing  through  the  zenith  from  north-east 
to  south-west  is  the  marvellously  complex  galactic  belt, 
or  Milky  Way,  along  which  may  be  found  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  groups  in  the  heavens. 

Capricornus 

(The  Sea-goat) 

The  tenth  sign  and  eleventh  constellation  of  the 
zodiac,  Capricornus,  the  Sea-goat,  lies  south-east  of 
Aquila  and  west  of  Aquarius.  It  has  no  conspicuous 
stars,  nor  any  very  definitely  outlined  figure.  As  seen 
on  a  clear  night  the  constellation  has  been  likened  to  an 
inverted  cocked  hat,  and  again  to  the  cross-section  of 
a  rowboat.  And  yet,  after  all,  as  Mrs.  Martin  in  her 
Friendly  Stars  says,  there  is  something  about  its  dan- 
cing stars  suggestive  of  a  capering  goat,  if  one  does 
not  try  to  be  too  definite.  It  is  usually  depicted  as 
a  sea-goat,  headed  westward,  having  the  head  and 
body  of  a  goat,  but  the  tail  of  a  fish.  Aratus  thus 
describes  it : 

the  goat 

Dim  in  the  midst,  but  four  fair  stars  surround  him, 
One  pair  set  close,  the  other  wider  parted. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  129 

Alpha  Capricorni,  or  Algedi,  and  Beta  Capricorn!, 
or  Dabih,  two  third-magnitude  stars,  two  and  a  half 
degrees  apart,  in  the  right  horn  of  the  animal,  are  about 
twenty  degrees  south  of  Altair,  and  point  towards  it. 
A  line  drawn  from  Vega  to  the  horizon,  through  Altair, 
will  pass  between  them.  Omega,  a  fourth-magnitude 
star  marks  the  right  knee  of  the  kneeling  Goat.  The 
third-magnitude  star  Delta,  or  Deneb  Algedi,  and 
Gamma,  or  Nashira,  are  in  the  fish-tail.  Below  Beta 
is  a  pretty  little  triangle  formed  by  the  fifth-magnitude 
stars,  Pi,  Rho,  and  Omicron.  In  all,  Capricornus  con- 
tains four  stars  of  the  third  magnitude,  six  of  the 
fourth,  and  about  ten  of  the  fifth  magnitude. 

In  mythology,  the  constellation  was  sometimes  identi- 
fied with  Pan,  the  companion  of  Bacchus,  and  the  god 
of  everything  connected  with  pastoral  life.  The  legend 
relates  that  Pan,  with  some  other  deities,  was  feasting 
on  the  bank  of  the  Nile,  when  the  dreadful  giant 
Typhon  suddenly  appeared  in  their  midst.  To  escape 
his  fury,  they  all  fled,  and  assumed  different  shapes. 
Pan,  taking  the  lead,  plunged  into  the  river,  the  upper 
part  of  his  body  assuming  the  form  of  a  goat,  and  the 
lower  part  that  of  a  fish.  Desiring  to  preserve  the 
memory  of  the  caper,  Jupiter  turned  Pan  into  a  con- 
stellation in  his  metamorphosed  state.  In  works  of 
art,  Pan  is  represented  as  a  voluptuous  being  with 
horns,  pug-nose,  and  goat's  feet,  sometimes  in  the  act 
of  dancing,  and  sometimes  playing  on  the  syrinx,  or 
shepherd's  flute. 

Another  legend  associated  Capricornus  with  the  goat 
that  belonged  to  the  nymph  Amalthea,  daughter  of  the 
King  of  Crete.  Amalthea  and  her  sister,  Melissa,  as  the 
story  runs,  fed  the  infant  Jupiter  with  the  goat's  milk 
and  honey.  The  father  of  the  gods,  as  reward  for  their 


130  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

kind  and  valuable  services,  placed  the  goat  in  the  skies 
and  gave  one  of  its  horns  to  the  nymphs.  This  horn 
was  endowed  with  the  wonderful  power  of  becoming 
filled  with  whatever  the  holder  desired,  and  was  ever 
after  known  as  the  celebrated  horn  of  Amalthea,  com- 
monly called  the  "horn  of  plenty."  According  to  an 
ancient  Greek  myth  the  constellation  was  the  "Gate  of 
the  Gods, "  the  region  of  the  stars  through  which  the  souls 
of  men  passed  on  their  way  to  the  realms  of  the  blest. 

The  star  Alpha  Capricorni,  is  a  pretty,  naked-eye 
double,  and  is  easily  separated  with  an  opera-glass 
or  binocular.  The  larger  star  is  of  the  third  magni- 
tude, and  the  other  of  the  fourth,  and  both  are  of  a 
bright  yellow  colour.  In  a  telescope  each  star  is  seen  to 
be  triple.  Beta  Capricorni  is  also  a  beautiful  widely 
double  star,  in  an  opera-glass.  Its  magnitudes  are  third 
and  sixth,  and  its  colours,  yellow  and  blue.  Delta  is 
a  beautiful  double,  the  larger  star  being  of  a  yellowish 
colour,  and  its  minute  companion  of  a  purple  tint.  It 
is  interesting  as  marking  the  approximate  position  of 
the  discovery  of  the  planet  Neptune  by  Le  Verrier  in 
1846. 

In  astrology  Capricornus  is  generally  considered  a 
feminine  sign  and  unfortunate. 

The  sun  enters  the  sign  Capricornus  about  December 
2 1st,  but  does  not  reach  the  constellation  until  January 
1 8th,  which  it  occupies  until  the  middle  of  February. 
Dante  thus  alludes  to  it  in  the  Paradiso: 

The  horn  of  the  celestial  goat  doth  touch  the  sun. 

The  two  stars  in  the  head  of  the  Goat,  namely  Alpha 
and  Beta,  pass  the  meridian,  three-eighths  of  the  way 
up  from  the  horizon,  at  9  P.M.  on  September  I5th. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  131 

Delphinus 
(Job's  Coffin) 

The  beautiful  and  interesting  little  constellation 
Delphinus,  the  Dolphin,  popularly  known  as  Job's 
Coffin,  lies  south  of  Cygnus  and  east  of  Aquila.  It  is 
a  finely  marked  diamond-shaped  cluster,  about  ten 
degrees  north-east  of  Altair,  and  is  a  fine  sight  in  an 
opera-glass. 

The  glory  of  the  Flood  and  of  the  Stars. 

MANILIUS. 

It  is  easily  recognised  by  four  stars  in  the  head  of  the 
Dolphin,  three  of  which  are  telescopic  doubles  and 
somewhat  variable.  A  little  south  and  west  of  these 
four  stars,  which  are  called  Alpha,  Beta,  Gamma,  and 
Delta,  is  another  star  known  as  Epsilon,  which  marks 
the  tail.  A  line  drawn  from  Polaris  through  Deneb, 
prolonged  thirty  degrees,  ends  at  the  Dolphin.  The 
constellation  has  no  stars  brighter  than  the  fourth 
magnitude. 

In  Greek  mythology  the  starry  Dolphin  has  been 
identified  with  the  fish  upon  whose  back  Arion,  the 
famous  lyric  poet  and  musician  took  his  celebrated 
ride.  Returning  from  Corinth  to  Sicily,  where  he  had 
won  some  valuable  prizes  at  a  musical  contest,  he  was 
seized  by  the  rude  sailors  who  coveted  his  treasures  and 
meditated  his  destruction.  Having  been  granted  per- 
mission by  his  would-be  murderers  to  play  for  the  last 
time  upon  his  cithara,  he  so  charmed  a  school  of  the 
song-loving  dolphins  by  his  melodies  that  they  crowded 
around  the  ship.  Suddenly  he  threw  himself  into  the 
sea,  when  one  of  the  dolphins,  acting  as  a  life-saver, 


132  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

took  him  upon  his  back  and  brought  him  safely  to 
Taenarus,  from  whence  he  returned  to  Corinth. 

Another  legend  relates  that  it  was  the  dolphin — the 
messenger  and  favourite  of  Neptune — that  carried  the 
nereid  Amphitrite  to  that  deity,  to  become  his  bride. 
In  works  of  art,  Neptune  (Poseidon)  may  be  easily 
recognised  by  his  attributes,  the  dolphin,  the  horse, 
or  the  trident. 

The  star  Gamma  is  a  fine  double,  and  is  of  special 
interest  on  account  of  the  beautiful  contrasting  colours 
of  its  components,  which  are  eleven  seconds  of  arc 
apart.  The  principal  star  is  of  the  fourth-and-a-half 
magnitude,  and  of  a  yellowish  colour,  while  the  com- 
panion star  is  of  the  fifth-and-a-half  magnitude  and  of  a 
bluish-green  colour.  The  slow  companion  star  moves 
only  about  seven  and  a  half  degrees  in  one  hundred 
years.  Alpha,  a  star  of  the  fourth  magnitude,  is  a  wide 
double,  with  a  tiny  companion  star  of  about  the  tenth 
magnitude. 

Equuleus 
(The  Little  Horse) 

Lying  midway  between  the  head  of  Pegasus  and  the 
Dolphin  is  a  little  cluster  of  stars  called  Equuleus,  or 
Equus,  the  "Foal,"  or  little  horse.  It  is  a  reduplication 
of  Pegasus,  the  winged  horse,  and  its  figure,  like  that  of 
its  brother,  is  in  an  inverted  position.  It  is  an  ancient 
asterism,  and  was  formed  by  Hipparchus  from  stars 
formerly  belonging  to  the  Dolphin.  It  may  be  known 
by  the  elongated,  irregular  trapezium,  formed  by  four 
of  its  stars,  only  two  of  which  are  as  bright  as  the 
fourth  magnitude.  In  the  Rubaiyat,  Omar  Khayyam, 
the  astronomer-poet  of  Persia,  thus  alludes  to  the 
asterism: 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  133 

The  flaming  shoulders  of  the  Foal  of  Heaven. 

In  mythology,  the  asterism  is  said  to  represent  the 
horse  Celeris,  which  Mercury  presented  to  Castor. 
Another  myth  associates  it  with  the  celebrated  horse 
that  sprang  out  of  the  rock  which  Neptune  shattered 
with  his  trident,  when  contending  with  Minerva  for 
superiority  in  Olympian  magic. 

Delta  Equulei,  a  fourth-magnitude  star  with  a  fifth- 
magnitude  companion,  is  noted  because  it  possesses  an 
extremely  short  period  of  revolution,  which  according 
to  Hussey  is  about  five  and  seven- tenths  years.  Epsilon 
is  an  interesting  triple  star  of  the  fourth  magnitude. 
Its  companions  belong  to  the  fifth  and  tenth  magni- 
tudes respectively.  The  larger  companion  stands 
very  close  to  the  principal  star,  and  is  of  interest  on 
account  of  its  period  of  revolution  being  only  eleven 
years. 

Equuleus  is  on  the  meridian  about  9  P.M.,  September 
24th. 

Aquarius 

(The  Water-bearer) 

The  eleventh  sign  and  twelfth  constellation  of  the 
zodiac,  Aquarius,  the  Water-bearer,  is  a  large,  but  not 
very  conspicuous  straggling  constellation  lying  east  of 
Capricornus,  south  of  Pegasus  and  Delphinus,  and 
north  of  Piscis  Australis.  It  contains  no  stars  brighter 
than  the  third  magnitude,  but  is  important  astronomi- 
cally, owing  to  its  position  in  the  zodiac,  and  its  tele- 
scopic richness.  It  has  been  represented  from  time 
immemorial  by  the  figure  of  a  man  pouring  out  a  stream 
of  water  from  an  urn.  The  constellation  is  best  seen 
from  August  to  November,  and  the  major  part  of  it 


134  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

lies  south  of  the  ecliptic.     The  sun  enters  it  about 
February  I4th  and  occupies  it  until  March  I4th. 

In  Longfellow's  translation  of  Dante,  it  is  written: 

The  sun  his  locks  beneath  Aquarius  tempers, 
And  now  the  nights  draw  near  to  half  the  day. 

Situated  at  the  northern  limit  of  the  constellation, 
intersected  by  the  equator,  is  an  exceptionally  pretty 
group,  forming  a  Y-shaped  figure  or  a  triangle,  which 
marks  the  right  hand  and  the  overturned  urn  or  water- 
jar  of  Aquarius.  The  bright  stars  forming  the  figure, 
which  serves  to  readily  distinguish  the  constellation, 
are  Gamma,  Eta,  Pi,  and  Zeta.  From  this  group  can 
be  traced  small  groups  of  faint  stars,  many  of  them  in 
pairs  and  triples,  which  lead  downward  and  eastward 
in  wavering  curves  to  Fomalhaut,  a  first-magnitude 
star  in  the  mouth  of  the  Southern  Fish. 

Aquarius  is  a  natural  emblem  of  the  rainy  season, 
and  by  the  ancient  Egyptians  it  was  imagined  that  its 
setting  caused  the  rising  of  the  Nile.  In  mythology  it 
is  sometimes  identified  with  Deucalion,  son  of  Pro- 
metheus and  Clymene,  who,  with  his  wife  Pyrrha, 
escaped  from  the  celebrated  Thessalian  nine-days'  de- 
luge in  1500  B.  c.  Some  say  it  commemorates  the 
youth  Ganymedes,  whom  Jupiter  snatched  to  Mount 
Olympus  to  be  the  cup-bearer  of  the  gods. 

In  astrology  it  is  a  masculine  sign  and  fortunate.  Its 
natives  are  those  born  between  January  2Oth  and 
February  iQth. 

The  chief  stars  in  the  constellation  are  Alpha,  Beta, 
Gamma,  Delta,  and  Phi,  all  of  about  the  third  magni- 
tude. The  leading  star  Alpha  Aquarii,  or  Sadalmelik,  is 
only  one  degree  south  of  the  celestial  equator,  and  marks 


f: 

The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  135 

the  right  shoulder,  while  Beta,  or  Sadalsuud,  twelve 
degrees  farther  west,  marks  the  left  shoulder.  A  line 
drawn  from  Alpheratz  through  Markab,  in  the  Great 
Square  of  Pegasus,  and  produced  towards  the  south- 
west will  pass  near  Alpha  Aquarii.  Five  degrees  east 
of  Alpha  is  Gamma,  in  the  right  arm.  Zeta,  the  central 
star  of  the  little  Y-shaped  figure  representing  the  water- 
jar,  lies  close  to  the  celestial  equator,  and  is  a  note- 
worthy long-period  binary.  The  two  stars  are  of  the 
fourth  magnitude,  and  of  a  white  colour.  They  are 
separated  by  a  little  more  than  three  seconds  of  arc, 
and  the  period  of  revolution  is  estimated  at  about 
75°  years.  Delta,  or  Scheat,  in  the  right  leg,  marks  the 
radiant  point  of  the  meteors,  known  as  the  Delta  Aqua- 
rids,  which  appear  from  the  27th  to  the  29th  of  July. 
With  Beta  and  Gamma  it  forms  an  isosceles  triangle, 
the  vertex  being  at  Gamma.  About  one  degree  west  of 
Nu  towards  Epsilon,  or  Al  Bali — two  fourth-magnitude 
stars  in  the  left  forearm — is  situated  the  remarkable 
"Saturn-like"  planetary  nebula,  4628.  It  was  dis- 
covered by  Herschel  in  1782,  and  is  approaching  the 
solar  system  at  the  rate  of  about  seventeen  miles  a 
second. 

Piscis  Australis 

(The  Southern  Fish) 

Lying  south  of  Aquarius  is  Piscis  Australis,  the 
Southern  Fish,  a  small  constellation  represented  as  a 
fish  drinking  the  water  poured  out  of  the  water- jar  of 
Aquarius.  It  is  an  ancient  asterism,  and  is  marked  out 
by  the  brilliant  star  Fomalhaut  in  the  mouth  of  the 
fish,  and  a  few  fifth-magnitude  stars  to  the  west  of  it. 

In  Greek  legend  it  is  associated  with  the  story  of  the 
adventure  of  Venus  and  her  son  Cupid,  on  the  banks 


136  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

of  the  Euphrates,  with  the  famous  Typhon,  a  terrible 
fire-breathing  giant  with  a  hundre*d  heads,  fearful  eyes, 
and  awful  voices.  To  escape  the  monster,  Venus  threw 
herself  with  the  infant  Cupid  into  the  river,  and  both 
were  changed  into  fishes.  Typhon  is  said  to  have  been 
killed,  finally,  by  Jupiter  with  a  flash  of  lightning,  and 
now  lies  under  Mount  ^Etna. 

The  leader  of  the  constellation  is  Fomalhaut,  a  star 
of  the  first  magnitude,  and  the  brightest  star  in  this 
comparatively  starless  region  of  the  sky.  It  is  the 
farthest  south  of  any  very  bright  stars  visible  in  this 
latitude.  It  may  be  seen  in  the  southern  sky  from 
August  to  the  end  of  December,  and  is  a  conspicuous 
object  during  the  early  evenings  of  autumn.  An 
imaginary  line  drawn  through  the  pointers  to  the  pole 
star,  and  extended  southward  one  hundred  and  twenty 
degrees,  points  to  it.  Then,  too,  the  two  western  stars 
of  the  Great  Square  of  Pegasus,  namely  Scheat  and 
Markab,  point  in  its  direction. 

Fomalhaut  is  of  a  reddish  colour,  and  has  a  distant 
dull  blue  companion  of  the  ninth-and-a-half  magnitude. 
It  is  twenty- three  and  a  half  light  years  distant,  and 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  eight  miles  a  second. 
It  gives  out  about  twenty-one  times  as  much  light  as 
the  sun .  It  was  one  of  the  four  Royal  Stars  of  astrology, 
and  was  also  regarded  as  one  of  the  four  guardians  of 
heaven.  Astrologically  it  portended  eminence,  fortune, 
and  power.  It  is  a  star  much  used  by  navigators  in 
determining  longitude  at  sea.  At  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  and  in  similar  latitudes,  it  is  a  zenith  star.  It 
rises  in  the  far  south-east  and  takes  only  four  hours  to 
reach  the  meridian,  when  it  is  less  than  one-fourth 
of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith.  It 
culminates  at  9  P.M.  on  October  25th. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  137 

Pegasus 

(the  Flying  Horse) 

Pegasus,  the  Flying  Horse,  is  a  large  and  notable 
constellation  situated  north  of  Aquarius,  east  of  Del- 
phinus,  and  west  of  Pisces.  It  is  a  conspicuous  feature 
of  the  autumn  skies,  and  its  chief  object  is  a  large 
quadrangular  stellar  figure  called  the  Great  Square  of 
Pegasus.  Each  side  of  the  square  is  nearly  eighteen 
degrees  in  length,  and  the  four  stars  which  mark  its 
corners,  are  Alpha  Pegasi  or  Markab,  Beta  or  Scheat, 
Gamma  Pegasi,  and  Alpheratz  the  Alpha  star  of 
Andromeda.  Alpheratz  is  the  upper  left-hand  star  of 
the  square,  the  upper  right-hand  one  is  Scheat,  the 
lower  right-hand  one  is  Markab,  and  the  lower  left- 
hand  star  is  Gamma.  The  square  is  a  prominent  stellar 
landmark,  and  is  sometimes  called  the  "Big  Diamond. " 
It  is  all  the  more  striking  on  account  of  its  scarcity  of 
stars,  and  is  easily  recognised  during  autumn  and 
winter,  a  small  triangle  on  the  north-west  corner  helping 
to  identify  it.  It  marks  the  body  of  the  horse,  and  the 
eastern  third  of  the  constellation. 

Pegasus,  often  referred  to  as  the  "  Half  -Horse, "  is 
represented  as  a  winged  horse  in  an  inverted  position, 
flying  westward,  with  his  forefeet  pawing  the  sky, 
although  the  group  bears  but  little  resemblance  to  a 
horse.  According  to  fable  it  is  the  celebrated  white- 
winged  horse  that  sprang  from  the  blood  of  the  hateful 
Gorgon  Medusa,  after  Perseus  had  cut  off  her  head. 
Rising  to  the  abodes  of  the  immortals,  he  was  tamed  by 
Neptune  or  Minerva,  and  for  a  time  was  employed  to 
carry  thunder  and  lightning  for  Jupiter.  He  was  given 
to  Bellerophon,  son  of  Glaucus,  and  grandson  of 
Sisyphus,  to  aid  him  in  conquering  the  Chimaera,  a 


138  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

hideous,  three-headed,  fire-breathing  monster,  part  goat, 
part  lion,  and  part  serpent,  whom  lobates,  King  of 
Lycia,  had  ordered  him  to  destroy.  With  the  aid  of  a 
golden  bridle,  which  Minerva  had  given  him,  Bellero- 
phon  caught  Pegasus  while  he  was  drinking  at  Pirene,  a 
celebrated  fountain  at  the  famous  Grecian  city,  spoken 
of  in  Horace  as  "Two-sea'd  Corinth." 

Bestride  the  horse,  Bellerophon  rode  through  the 
air,  and  killed  the  Chimaera  with  his  arrows.  The 
Chimasra  vanquished,  Bellerophon  attempted  to  mount 
the  heavens  on  the  back  of  his  winged  steed.  But 
Jupiter,  angered  at  his  presumption,  sent  a  gad-fly  to 
sting  Pegasus,  so  that  he  dismounted  his  rider,  who  fell 
headlong  to  the  earth.  Pegasus,  however,  rid  of  his 
burden,  continued  his  flight  upwards  and  was  placed 
by  Jupiter  among  the  constellations. 

Pegasus  was  a  great  favourite  with  the  Muses, 
because  from  his  magic  hoof -print  gushed  a  fountain 
called  the  Hippocrene  or  Fons  Caballinus,  on  the  steep 
and  rocky  Acro-Corinthus,  a  mountain  nineteen  hundred 
feet  in  height,  which  served  as  the  citadel  of  Corinth, 
and  was  in  the  words  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  ''one  of  the 
fetters  of  Greece. "  Serviss  says  that  modern  travellers 
may  still  see  this  fountain  full  of  water.  Bryant  thus 
refers  to  it : 

The  poetic  steed 

With  beamy  mane,  whose  hoof  struck  out  from  earth, 
The  fount  of  Hippocrene. 

This  fabled  spring,  at  which,  it  is  said,  every  poet  must 
drink  ere  he  can  soar  on  Pegasean  wing,  was  surrounded 
by  a  grove  sacred  to  the  Muses,  which  was  adorned  with 
some  of  the  finest  works  of  art.  Spenser,  in  one  of  his 
poems,  writes: 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  139 

Then  whoso  will  with  virtuous  wing  essay 
To  mount  to  heaven,  on  Pegasus  must  ride, 
And  with  sweet  Poet's  verse  be  glorified. 

Pegasus  is  often  seen  represented  in  ancient  works, 
along  with  Minerva  and  Bellerophon.  Early  Christians 
thought  that  the  figure  represented  the  ass  on  which 
Christ  rode  in  triumph  to  Jerusalem.  Longfellow,  in  his 
poem,  Pegasus  in  Pound,  represents  the  magic  steed  as 
straying  into  a  certain  quiet  New  England  village, 
and  being  put  into  the  pound : 

Once  into  a  quiet  village, 

Without  haste  and  without  heed, 

In  the  golden  prime  of  morning, 
Strayed  the  poet's  winged  steed. 

Thus  upon  the  village  common, 
By  the  schoolboys  he  was  found; 

And  the  wise  men,  in  their  wisdom, 
Put  him  straightway  into  pound. 

And  the  curious  country  people, 
Rich  and  poor,  and  young  and  old, 

Came  in  haste  to  see  this  wondrous 
Winged  steed,  with  mane  of  gold. 

On  the  morrow,  when  the  village 

Woke  to  all  its  toil  and  care, 
Lo!  the  strange  steed  had  departed, 

And  they  knew  not  when  or  where. 

But  they  found,  upon  the  greensward, 
Where  his  struggling  hoofs  had  trod, 

Pure  and  bright,  a  fountain  flowing 
From  the  hoof -marks  in  the  sod. 


The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  brightest  star  in  Pegasus  is  Enif,  or  Epsilon,  a 
wide,  double  star  of  a  yellow  colour,  and  of  the  second 
magnitude,  with  an  eighth  and  a  half  magnitude  com- 
panion of  a  violet  hue.  It  lies  about  ten  degrees  east  of 
the  Dolphin,  the  diamond-shaped  group  of  stars  popu- 
larly known  as  Job's  Coffin.  Markab,  or  Alpha,  is  a 
white  star  of  about  the  second  magnitude,  at  the 
junction  of  the  animal's  wing  and  shoulder.  It  rises 
to  the  north  of  east,  and  occupies  about  seven  hours  in 
reaching  the  meridian,  when  it  is  nearly  three-fourths 
of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith.  It  is  a 
spectroscopic  binary,  and  it  comes  to  the  meridian  at 
9  P.M.  on  November  3d.  Scheat,  or  Beta,  in  the  left 
foreleg  is  an  irregular  variable,  of  about  the  second 
magnitude,  and  of  a  reddish-yellow  colour.  It  is  reced- 
ing from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  about  four  miles 
a  second.  A  line  from  Alpheratz  to  Markab,  prolonged 
an  equal  distance,  passes  through  Zeta  in  the  neck,  and 
ends  at  Theta,  which  is  at  the  top  of  the  head.  Enif  is 
in  the  nose  of  the  imaginary  horse,  while  Gamma  is 
situated  on  the  extremity  of  its  wing,  and  is  receding 
from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  about  three  miles 
a  second.  Alpheratz,  with  Gamma,  and  Caph,  or  Beta 
Cassiopeiae,  lie  very  nearly  on  the  equinoctial  colure  or 
prime  meridian  of  the  heavens,  which  passes  through 
the  pole  and  the  vernal  equinox,  and  hence  have  been 
termed  the  " Three  Guides." 

The  star  85  Pegasi,  a  few  degrees  below  Alpheratz 
to  the  south-west,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of 
binary  systems.  It  takes  rather  more  than  twice 
as  long  as  Kappa  Pegasi  (with  a  period  of  eleven 
and  a  half  years)  to  complete  its  orbit.  It  was 
discovered  to  be  a  variable  star  by  S.  W.  Burnham 
in  1878. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  141 

Triangulum 

(The  Triangle) 

Lying  between  Andromeda  and  Aries  is  the  small 
but  beautiful,  ancient  asterism  known  as  Triangulum, 
the  Triangle.  The  figure  was  also  called  Delta,  or 
To  Deltoton,  from  its  likeness  to  the  Greek  letter  Delta. 
A  line  drawn  from  Almaak  in  Andromeda  to  Hamal  in 
Aries  will  pass  through  it. 

Beneath  Andromeda,  three  lines  compose 
The  Triangle.     On  two  sides  measured  equal, 
The  third  side  less. 

ARATUS. 

The  corners  of  this  long  slim  triangle  are  marked  by  the 
third-magnitude  star  Beta  in  the  upper  right-hand 
corner,  the  fourth-magnitude  star  Delta  in  the  upper 
left-hand  corner,  and  Alpha  also  a  fourth-magnitude 
star  at  the  apex  or  southern  point  of  the  figure.  The 
star  Alpha  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  December  6th. 

A  beautiful  spiral  nebula,  33  M,  visible  in  a  small 
telescope,  lies  just  off  a  line  from  Alpha  in  the  Triangle 
to  Beta  in  Andromeda. 

Triangulum  is  noted  as  marking  the  place  where  Piazzi 
on  January  I,  1801,  found  Ceres,  the  first  planetoid  or 
minor  planet  to  be  discovered. 

Aries 

(The  Ram) 

The  first  sign  and  second  constellation  of  the  zodiac, 
Aries,  the  Ram,  is  a  small  but  important  constellation 
lying  east  of  the  northern  fish  of  Pisces  and  north  of  the 
head  of  Cetus.  The  reverted  head  of  the  Ram  is  in  the 
western  part  of  the  constellation,  and  can  be  recognised 


142  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

by  the  two  prominent  stars  Alpha,  or  Hamal,  and  Beta, 
or  Sheratan,  five  degrees  apart,  with  a  fainter  one, 
Gamma,  or  Mesarthim,  drooping  from  them,  the  three 
stars  forming  an  obtuse  triangle.  A  small  group  of 
fourth-  and  fifth-magnitude  stars,  about  ten  degrees 
south-west  of  the  Pleiades,  marks  the  tail. 

In  the  time  of  Hipparchus,  who  flourished  in  the 
second  century  B.C.,  Aries  was  the  leader  of  the  host  of 
the  zodiac,  and  the  vernal  equinox  was  just  below 
Gamma  Arietis.  About  A.D.  420,  his  leadership — as  a 
constellation,  not  as  a  sign — was  transferred  to  Pisces. 
The  sign  Aries  remains  the  first  of  the  zodiac,  but  owing 
to  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  is  occupied  by  the 
constellation  Pisces,  and  will  soon  pass  to  Aquarius. 
As  noted  in  Chapter  I.,  the  name  "first  point  of  Aries" 
is  still  applied  to  it  by  time-honoured  usage. 

First  from  the  east,  the  Ram  conducts  the  year. 

A  line  drawn  from  Beta  Tauri  or  El  Nath  to  the 
Pleiades,  and  continued  for  about  the  same  distance 
will  reach  Aries's  head.  The  constellation  may  be  seen 
every  evening  from  late  September  to  April,  and  the 
sun  passes  through  it  from  April  i6th  to  May  I3th. 

In  mythology,  Aries  represents  the  ram  with  the 
golden  fleece  of  Argonautic  fame.  Manilius  thus  refers 
to  it: 

First  Aries,  glorious  in  his  golden  wool, 
Looks  back  and  wonders  at  the  mighty  Bull. 

According  to  legend  Athamas,  King  of  Thebes  in 
Bceotia,  had  two  children  named  Phrixus  and  Helle, 
by  Nephele,  whom  he  afterwards  repudiated,  and 
married  the  mortal  Ino.  Being  persecuted  by  Ino,  their 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  143 

stepmother,  who  desired  to  sacrifice  Phrixus  to  Jupiter, 
the  two  children  were  rescued  by  Nephele,  and  rode 
away  through  the  air  towards  the  east,  upon  the  back 
of  a  ram  which  bore  a  golden  fleece,  the  gift  of  Mercury. 
In  their  journey,  Helle,  Phrixus's  sister,  was  so  unfortu- 
nate as  to  drop  off  into  the  sea,  between  Sigeum  and 
the  Chersonesus,  and  was  drowned.  The  sea  was 
called  after  her,  the  Sea  of  Helle,  or  the  Hellespont. 

Longfellow,  in  his  translation  from  Ovid,  thus  alludes 
toHelle'sfall: 

The  Ram  that  bore  unsafely  the  burden  of  Helle. 

Continuing  his  flight,  the  Ram  bore  the  boy  Phrixus 
to  Colchis,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Black  Sea.  In 
gratitude  for  his  safe  deliverance,  Phrixus  sacrificed  the 
Ram  to  Jupiter,  and  gave  the  golden  fleece  to  King 
^Etes,  his  protector,  who  fastened  it  to  an  oak  tree  in 
the  sacred  grove  of  Ares,  under  guard  of  a  sleepless 
dragon.  The  fleece  was  afterwards  carried  away  by 
Jason  and  the  Argonauts,  and  the  ram  was  placed  by 
Jupiter  among  the  constellations.  Aries  has  also  been 
identified  with  the  ram  into  which  Zeus  changed  him- 
self to  escape  the  pursuit  of  the  giants. 

Astrologically  considered,  Aries,  like  Scorpio,  is  the 
house  and  joy  of  Mars.  It  is  a  masculine  sign,  and  is 
regarded  as  fortunate. 

The  chief  star  of  Aries,  marking  his  forehead,  is 
Alpha,  or  Hamal,  a  yellowish  star  of  the  second  magni- 
tude. It  lies  near  the  moon's  path,  and  is  one  of  the 
stars  by  which  terrestrial  longitude  is  reckoned.  It 
is  about  forty  light  years  distant,  has  a  proper  or  cross 
motion  of  eight  miles  a  second,  and  is  approaching  the 
solar  system  at  the  rate  of  nine  miles  a  second.  It 


144  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

rises  in  the  north-east,  about  fifteen  minutes  before 
Capella,  and  takes  about  seven  hours  and  a  half  to 
reach  the  meridian,  when  it  is  a  little  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith. 
It  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  December  nth. 

Beta,  or  Sheratan,  is  a  white  star,  a  little  brighter 
than  the  third  magnitude,  and  is  situated  about  three 
degrees  below  Hamal,  the  two  stars  marking  the  base 
of  the  two  horns  of  the  Ram.  The  star  Gamma,  or 
Mesarthim,  an  easy  double,  is  separable  in  a  small 
telescope.  The  principal  star  is  of  the  fourth  magnitude 
and  of  a  white  colour,  and  the  companion  star  is  of  the 
fourth-and-a-half  magnitude  and  of  a  yellowish  colour. 
Gamma  was  discovered  to  be  double  by  Robert  Hooke, 
while  observing  a  comet  near  the  star  in  1664,  but  was 
not,  as  is  sometimes  stated,  the  first  double  star  dis- 
covered, Riccioli  having  recorded  the  duplicity  of  Mizar, 
or  Zeta,  in  Ursa  Major,  in  1650.  Epsilon  is  a  very  close 
double,  with  a  principal  star  of  the  fifth-and-a-half 
magnitude  and  of  a  pale  yellow  colour,  and  a  whitish 
companion  of  the  sixth  magnitude.  Lambda  Arietis  is 
a  wide  double,  the  larger  star  being  white  in  colour  and 
of  the  fifth  magnitude,  while  the  smaller  star  is  of  the 
eighth  magnitude  and  of  a  bluish  colour. 

Perseus 

(The  Champion) 

Directly  north  of  the  Pleiades,  between  Auriga  'and 
Cassiopeia,  in  a  very  brilliant  part  of  the  Milky  Way, 
lies  the  rich  and  beautiful  constellation  Perseus.  It  is 
somewhat  irregular  in  form,  and  about  twenty-eight 
degrees  in  length,  and  is  for  the  most  part  a  circumpolar 
constellation.  It  can  be  easily  traced  by  means  of  a 
curved  line  of  stars  running  from  Cassiopeia  to  Capella, 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  145 

concave  towards  the  Greater  Bear,  and  usually  termed 
the  "Segment  of  Perseus."  On  old  star-maps  the  con- 
stellation figure  is  represented  as  that  of  the  Champion 
Perseus  striding  across  the  sky,  with  an  enormous 
sword  in  his  right  hand,  the  head  of  Medusa  in  his  left, 
and  wings  at  his  ankles.  Aratus,  in  his  Skies,  as  trans- 
lated by  Poste,  thus  alludes  to  the  gallant  hero : 

He  in  the  north-wind  stands  gigantic, 

His  right  hand  stretched  towards  the  throne 

Where  sits  the  mother  of  his  bride. 

As  one  bent  on  some  high  deed, 

Dust-stained  he  strides  over  the  floor  of  heaven. 

Perseus  is  fabled  to  have  been  the  son  of  Jupiter  and 
Danae.  His  mother's  father,  Acrisius,  feared  him  and 
tried  to  make  away  with  both  him  and  his  mother,  by 
casting  them,  locked  up  in  a  chest,  into  the  sea.  They 
were  rescued,  however,  by  a  fisherman,  and  carried  to 
Polydectes,  King  of  Seriphus  (one  of  the  Cyclades 
group  of  islands  in  the  ^Egean  Sea),  who  received  them 
kindly,  and  at  whose  court  they  afterwards  lived. 
When  Perseus  was  grown  up,  and  looked  not  with 
favour  on  the  king's  proposed  marriage  with  Danae,  he 
was  ordered  by  Polydectes  to  bring  him  as  a  wedding 
gift  the  head  of  Medusa.  Now  Medusa,  with  her  two 
sister  Gorgons,  was  equipped  with  enormous  tusk-like 
teeth,  brazen  claws,  and  golden  wings,  while  hissing 
serpents  crowned  her  head  instead  of  hair.  So  hideous 
were  the  features  of  a  Gorgon  that  to  look  at  one,  was 
to  be  turned  into  stone.  Favoured  by  the  gods,  how- 
ever, and  accoutred  for  his  perilous  adventure,  with 
Pluto's  helmet  of  invisibility,  Minerva's  wonderful 
shield  that  was  as  bright  as  a  mirror,  and  Mercury's 
winged  sandals,  he  mounted  the  air  and  tracked  the 

10 


146  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Gorgon  to  her  sea-girt  cave  near  Tartessus.  Finding 
the  three  Gorgon  sisters  asleep,  and  fearing  to  gaze  in 
Medusa's  face,  he  looked  upon  the  image  reflected  in 
Minerva's  polished  shield,  and  with  a  backward  stroke 
of  his  magic  blade,  he  cut  off  her  head  and  flew  away 
with  it  in  safety. 

The  victor  Perseus,  with  the  Gorgon's  head, 
O'er  Libyan  sands  his  airy  journey  sped, 
The  gory  drops  distilled,  as  swift  he  flew, 
And  from  each  drop  envenomed  serpents  grew. 

On  his  homeward  flight  through  the  air,  Perseus 
beheld  Andromeda,  the  Ethiopian  maiden,  chained  to 
the  rocks,  and  about  to  be  devoured  by  the  slimy  sea- 
monster,  Cetus.  With  lightning  speed  he  rushed  to  her 
aid,  turned  the  monster  into  stone  by  showing  it  the 
Gorgon's  bleeding  head,  gallantly  released  the  fair 
Andromeda,  conducted  her  back  to  her  father's  court, 
and  later  married  her.  He  gave  the  winged  sandals  and 
the  helmet  to  Mercury  who  restored  them  to  the 
nymphs  and  to  Pluto,  and  handed  the  head  of  Medusa 
to  Minerva,  who  placed  it  in  the  centre  of  her  shield  or 
breastplate.  Some  time  after,  at  the  request  of  Minerva, 
the  noble  pair  (Andromeda  and  Perseus)  were  given  a 
place  in  the  sky,  where  they  may  be  seen  to  this  day- 
worthy  and  popular  members  of  the  so-called  "Royal 
Family  of  Starland." 

Algenib,  or  Mirfak,  the  Alpha  of  the  constellation,  is  a 
lilac  coloured  star  of  the  second  magnitude,  and  is 
situated  in  the  middle  of  the  segment  of  Perseus,  on  the 
armour-clad  breast  of  the  hero,  about  ten  degrees  north 
of  Algol.  It  is  a  beautiful  star  of  the  solar  type,  lying 
directly  in  the  Milky  Way,  and  resembles  Altair  in  that 
it  has  a  bright  companion  on  either  side.  It  is  a  fine 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  147 

spectacle  for  the  opera-glass,  binocular  field-glass,  or  small 
telescope .  Algenib  is  about  forty-four  light  years  distant , 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  one  mile  a  second,  and  is 
approaching  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles 
a  second.  It  passes  the  meridian  about  fifteen  minutes 
after  Algol,  but  is  nine  degrees  farther  north. 

The  most  noted  star  in  the  constellation  is  Beta 
Persei,  or  Algol,  the  most  remarkable  periodic  variable 
star  in  the  heavens.  It  lies  in  a  sort  of  offshoot,  a  little 
south-east  of  Algenib,  and  forms  a  triangle  with  it  and 
Almaak,  the  star  which  marks  the  foot  of  Andromeda. 
It  shines  in  Medusa's  head,  which  is  represented  by  a 
group  of  five  or  six  stars  hanging  from  Perseus's  right 
hand,  and  is  popularly  known  as  the  "Demon  Star"  or 
the  "Winking  Demon."  It  may  be  easily  identified 
as  being  rather  less  than  half-way  upon  a  line  drawn 
from  the  Pleiades  to  the  distorted  "W"  of  Cassiopeia. 
Then,  too,  another  easy  way  to  identify  it  is  to  let  the 
four  bright  stars  in  the  square  of  Pegasus  represent  a 
"stew-pan,"  and  three  trailing  stars — Delta  and  Beta  in 
Andromeda,  and  Algol  in  Perseus — represent  its  slightly 
bent  handle,  with  Algol  at  the  end  of  the  handle.  The 
stars,  Beta,  Andromedae,  Beta  Persei,  and  Alpha  Per- 
sei, form  a  greater  "W"  just  beneath  the  smaller 
though  more  distinct  "W"  of  Cassiopeia. 

The  variability  of  Algol  was  first  scientifically  noted 
by  Montanari,  an  Italian,  in  1669,  but  its  periodicity 
was  first  accurately  determined  in  1783  by  Goodricke, 
an  English  astronomer.  Its  period  of  revolution  is  two 
days,  twenty  hours,  forty-eight  minutes,  and  fifty-five 
seconds.  It  remains  for  the  greater  part  of  this  time — 
that  is  for  two  days,  eleven  hours,  and  thirty  minutes — 
at  its  maximum  of  nearly  the  second  magnitude.  Sud- 
denly it  begins  to  fade,  and  in  about  four  and  a  half 


148  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

hours,  loses  three-fourths  of  its  light.  When  at  mini- 
mum— its  point  of  faintest  brilliancy — it  shines  as  a 
star  but  little  brighter  than  the  fourth  magnitude.  In 
about  eighteen  minutes  it  begins  to  brighten  again,  and 
in  about  the  next  four  and  a  half  hours  regains  its 
normal  brilliancy.  All  of  these  variations  are  within 
the  reach  of  the  unassisted  eye,  and  the  most  con- 
venient time  to  watch  them  is  through  the  hours  of 
the  early  evening  in  autumn.  Its  singular  variability  is 
apparently  due  to  its  having  a  relatively  dark  sister, 
an  enormous  invisible  body,  about  the  size  of  the  sun, 
circling  around  it  with  great  speed,  at  a  distance  of 
only  about  thirty-two  hundred  thousand  miles,  and  at 
regular  intervals  partly  eclipsing  it.  The  diameter  of 
Algol  is  given  as  about  one  million  miles,  and  that  of  its 
companion  as  about  eight  hundred  thousand  miles. 
To  astrologers,  Algol  was  known  as  the  most  unfortu- 
nate and  dangerous  star  in  the  heavens. 

Algol  is  a  star  of  the  sirian  type  and  is  approaching 
the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  two  miles  a  second.  No 
parallax  has  ever  been  found  for  it.  It  rises  in  the  far 
north-east  about  an  hour  earlier  than  Capella,  the 
shepherd-star,  and  occupies  nine  hours  and  twelve 
minutes  in  reaching  the  meridian,  when  it  is  not  far 
from  the  zenith.  It  rises  at  sunset  in  the  middle  of 
September,  and  culminates  at  9  P.M.  on  December  23d. 

Midway  between  Algenib  in  the  ''Segment  of  Per- 
seus" and  Cassiopeia,  is  a  magnificent  double  cluster  of 
stars  (Plate  XIII.),  visible  to  the  naked  eye  as  a  small 
hazy  patch  of  light  in  the  Milky  Way.  It  is  known  as 
the  "Great  Cluster  of  Perseus,"  and  is  considered  to  be 
the  finest  of  all  irregular  star-clusters.  It  is  sometimes 
called  "Chi  Persei,"  and  forms,  in  the  figure  of  the 
constellation,  the  "Sword-Hand  of  Perseus."  When 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XIII.     Double  Cluster  in  Perseus 


Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory 

PLATE  XIV.     Crab  Nebula  in  Taurus 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  149 

seen  in  an  opera- glass,  or  binocular  field-glass,  or  better 
still  in  a  two-inch  telescope,  this  gorgeous  double  swarm 
of  stars  is  a  peculiarly  beautiful  and  impressive  object. 

The  star  Eta  Persei,  on  the  right  side  of  the  hero's 
helmet,  is  a  double  star,  the  larger  star  of  the  two  com- 
ponents being  of  the  third  and  a  half  magnitude,  and 
of  an  orange  colour,  while  the  smaller  companion  star  is 
of  the  eighth  and  a  half  magnitude  and  of  a  bluish  colour. 
Gamma,  in  the  right  side  of  the  head,  Epsilon,  a  double 
star  in  the  left  knee,  and  Zeta,  a  quadruple  star  in  the 
left  foot,  are  of  the  third  magnitude,  while  Mu,  in  the 
right  knee,  is  of  the  fourth  magnitude. 

The  radiant  point  of  the  well-known  yellow  Perseid  me-         . 
teors,  sometimes  called  the  "Tears  of  St.  Lawrence, "  fine 
displays  of  which  are  to  be'seen  in  varying  numbers  on  the 
nights  of  August  loth  to  I3th,  is  in  this  constellation. 

On  the  morning  of  February  22,  1901,  there  blazed 
out  quite  suddenly,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Algol, 
about  midway  between  it  and  Delta  Persei,  a  Nova,  or  \X 
new  star — the  celebrated  Nova  Persei.  It  was  dis- 
covered by  Rev.  Dr.  Anderson,  an  amateur  astronomer 
of  Edinburgh,  and  was  the  most  brilliant  Nova  that  has 
appeared  since  Kepler's  in  1604.  It  shone  with  a 
bluish- white  light,  and  within  twenty-four  hours  had  at- 
tained the  brightness  of  a  first-magnitude  star.  It  began 
to  fade  in  a  few  days,  and  in  six  weeks  was  invisible  to 
the  naked  eye.  Photographs  obtained  of  it  the  follow- 
ing August  showed  a  nebulous  spiral  encircling  the  star. 
Later  the  nebulosity  disappeared,  but  the  star  is  still 
visible  as  a  telescopic  body  of  the  twelfth  magnitude. 

It  is  believed  by  most  observers  that  the  new  star — 
previously  an  obscure  body,  an  extinguished  sun,  so  to 
speak — had,  in  its  rapid  journey  through  space,  plunged    V 
into  a  vast  invisible  nebula,  or  had  encountered  a  wide- 


150  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

spread  cloud  of  meteoric  matter,  the  resultant  friction 
of  the  incessant  collisions  heating  its  surface  to  incan- 
descence, and  so  causing  the  outbursts  of  light.  As 
happens  to  all  variable  and  temporary  stars,  it  became 
yellow  as  it  faded,  and  finally  turned  red. 

According  to  the  estimate  accepted  by  many,  Nova 
Persei  is  approximately  three  hundred  light  years  dis- 
tant, so  that  the  outburst  actually  took  place  about  the 
year  1600,  instead  of  in  1901,  which  was  merely  the  year 
that  the  light  was  first  seen  on  the  earth.  It  may  be 
mentioned,  however,  that  some  investigations,  notably 
those  of  Bergstrand  and  Very,  differently  place  the 
star's  distance  at  from  sixty-five  to  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty  light  years. 

Cassiopeia 

(The  Lady  in  the  Chair) 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  pole  from  The  Dipper, 
between  Cepheus  and  Andromeda,  lies  the  rich  and 
interesting  constellation,  Cassiopeia,  or  the  Lady  in  the 
Chair,  one  of  the  most  attractive  groups  of  stars  in  the 
northern  sky.  It  is  one  of  the  six  well-defined  circum- 
polar  constellations,  that  are  always  above  the  horizon 
in  this  latitude,  and  can  be  seen  on  any  clear  night 
throughout  the  year.  Six  of  its  chief  naked-eye  stars 
form  a  figure  bearing  a  rude  resemblance  to  a  broken- 
backed  chair — Cassiopeia's  chair  or  throne — which 
stands  on  the  Arctic  Circle.  Leaving  out  Kappa,  a 
fourth-magnitude  star  on  the  front  edge  of  the  seat  of 
the  chair,  the  remaining  five  stars,  when  above  the 
pole,  roughly  form  a  wide  "W,"  with  the  open  part 
turned  towards  the  pole.  Beginning  at  the  right-hand 
or  western  end  of  the  W,  the  stars  are,  Beta  or  Caph, 
Alpha  or  Schedir,  Gamma,  Delta  or  Ruchbah,  and 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  151 

Epsilon.  When  the  stars  are  below  the  pole,  they  form 
a  somewhat  distorted  capital  "M. M  An  imaginary 
line  drawn  from  Mizar  in  The  Dipper,  through 
the  pole,  prolonged  an  equal  distance,  points  to 
Ruchbah. 

In  mythological  history,  Cassiopeia,  or  more  correctly 
Cassiepea,  was  the  beautiful  queen  of  Cepheus,  King  of 
Ethiopia,  and  mother  of  Andromeda,  the  maiden  who 
was  rescued  from  the  sea-monster  by  Perseus.  On  the 
celestial  maps,  she  is  represented  as  seated  in  regal  state 
on  her  gem-decked  throne,  drawing  her  robe  over  her 
shoulder  with  her  right  hand,  and  raising  a  palm  branch 
to  her  head  with  her  left.  Near-by,  on  her  right,  is 
King  Cepheus,  on  her  left  Perseus,  her  son-in-law,  and 
above  her  Andromeda,  her  daughter.  The  head  and 
body  of  the  queen  are  in  one  of  the  brightest  spots  of  the 
Milky  Way,  and  her  foot  rests  upon  the  Arctic  Circle. 
By  reason  of  the  circumpolar  motion  of  the  stars,  the 
vain  and  unhappy  Cassiopeia,  for  half  the  time, 
occupies  the  "unqueenly  attitude,"  alluded  to  by  Miss 
Proctor,  "of  standing  on  her  royal  head/'  a  punish- 
ment, among  others,  imposed  upon  her  through  petty 
spite  of  the  Sea  Nymphs,  for  boasting  that  she  and  her 
daughter  were  fairer  than  Juno  or  the  sea-beauty 
Atergates.  Aratus  says: 

She  head  foremost  like  a  tumbler  sits. 

The  earthly  Cassiopeia,  or  Cassiepea,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  black,  and  is  so  described  by  Milton  in  the 
following  lines  from  //  Penseroso: 

Hail,  divinest  Melancholy, 

O'erlaid  with  black,  staid  wisdom's  hue; 


152  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Black,  but  such  as  in  esteem 

Prince  Memnon's  sister  might  beseem, 

Or  that  starr 'd  Ethiop  queen  that  strove 

To  set  her  beauty's  praise  above 

The  sea-nymphs. 

The  constellation  Cassiopeia  contains  altogether 
about  sixty  stars  visible  to  the  unaided  eye,  including 
two  of  the  second  magnitude,  three  of  about  the  third, 
and  several  of  the  fourth  magnitude.  The  star  Alpha 
Cassiopeise,  or  Schedir,  in  the  breast,  is  a  fine  double 
star  of  about  the  second  magnitude  (max.  2.2,  min. 
2.8).  It  was  discovered  to  be  a  variable  star  by  Birt  in 
1831.  The  larger  star  is  of  a  reddish  colour,  while  the 
smaller  companion  star,  which  is  of  the  ninth  magnitude, 
is  of  a  bluish  tint.  It  is  forty-seven  light  years  distant 
and  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  two  miles  a  second. 
It  is  a  star  of  the  solar  type,  and  culminates  at  9  P.M. 
on  November  i8th.  Gamma,  also  a  star  of  about  the 
second  magnitude  (2.3),  is  a  gaseous  star  and  has  a 
companion  of  the  eleventh  magnitude.  It  is  notable  as 
being  the  first  star  discovered  to  contain  bright  lines 
in  its  spectrum. 

Beta,  or  Caph,  is  a  magnificent  double  star  of  about 
the  second  magnitude  (2.4),  in  the  back  of  the  chair. 
The  larger  star  is  white  in  colour,  and  is  so  bright  that 
the  smaller  companion  star  appears  lost  in  its  glare. 
It  lies  almost  exactly  on  the  equinoctial  colure,  or  first 
meridian  of  the  heavens,  and  is  one  of  the  so-called 
" Three  Guides."  It  is  approximately  forty-four  light 
years  distant,  and  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of 
twenty-two  miles  a  second. 

Delta,  or  Ruchbah,  the  first  star  in  the  back  of  the 
chair,  is  a  star  of  about  the  third  magnitude  (2.8),  and 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  153 

lies  in  line  with  Polaris  and  the  true  pole.  The  beauti- 
ful star  Eta  is  an  interesting  telescopic  binary,  halfway 
between  Alpha  and  Gamma,  separable  in  a  three- 
inch  telescope,  with  a  period  of  328  years.  The  larger 
component  is  of  the  third-and-a-half  magnitude,  and 
of  a  white  colour,  while  the  smaller  one  is  of  the 
seventh-and-a-half  magnitude,  and  of  a  rich,  ruddy 
purple  hue.  It  is  the  nearest  star  in  the  constellation, 
being  only  about  sixteen  light  years  distant.  It  has 
a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  eighteen  miles  a  second, 
and  is  receding  from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of 
five  and  a  half  miles  a  second. 

Epsilon,  at  the  top  of  the  back  of  the  chair,  is  of 
the  third-and-a-half  magnitude,  and  Kappa,  the  star 
on  the  front  edge  of  the  seat,  is  of  rather  less  than 
the  fourth  magnitude.  Mu,  a  fifth-magnitude  star, 
in  the  left  elbow,  is  notable  on  account  of  its  hav- 
ing the  large  proper  or  cross  motion  of  ninety-eight 
miles  a  second.  It  is  twenty-nine  light  years  distant, 
and  is  approaching  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  sixty 
miles  a  second. 

The  constellation  Cassiopeia  is  celebrated  as  being 
the  one  in  which,  near  the  little  star  Kappa,  suddenly 
blazed  out  Tycho's  very  remarkable  variable  of  1572. 
This  Tychonic  Nova  is  the  first  nova  or  temporary  star 
of  which  there  is  any  really  scientific  record.  It  was 
observed  by  Tycho  Brahe,  the  famous  Danish  astrono- 
mer, on  November  nth,  but  was  discovered  by  Schuler 
at  Wittenberg  in  Prussia,  who  saw  it  dimly  on  August 
6th.  It  was  long  known  as  Tycho's  star,  although 
sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  "Pilgrim  Star."  When 
first  seen  it  outshone  the  planet  Jupiter,  became  as 
bright  as  Venus,  and  eventually  was  visible  in  full 
daylight.  After  a  time,  however,  it  began  to  fade, 


154  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

turning  red  as  it  did  so,  and  in  March,  1754,  it  dis- 
appeared entirely,  and  has  never  been  seen  since. 

Andromeda 
(The  Chained  Maiden) 

Just  below  or  south-east  of  Cassiopeia,  between  Per- 
seus and  Pegasus,  lies  the  fine  and  romantic  constella- 
tion Andromeda,  the  Chained  Maiden.  It  is  represented 
in  classical  atlases  of  the  heavens  as  a  beautiful  maiden 
with  her  arms  extended  and  chained  by  her  wrists  and 
ankles  to  the  rocks.  It  is  over  thirty  degrees  in  length, 
and  can  be  easily  traced  by  means  of  four  bright  stars, 
beginning  with  Alpheratz  in  the  north-east  corner  of  the 
square  of  Pegasus,  which  indicates  the  head  of  the 
Chained  Maiden,  and  stretching  in  a  slightly  curved 
row  north-eastward  under  Cassiopeia.  The  second  star 
in  this  curved  row,  the  one  next  to  Alpheratz,  is  Delta, 
a  third-magnitude  star  lying  in  the  left  breast,  the  third 
one  is  Beta,  or  Mirach,  a  second-magnitude  star  mark- 
ing the  girdle,  and  the  fourth  star  is  Gamma,  or  Almaak, 
also  of  the  second  magnitude,  indicating  the  left  foot. 
Outstretched  toward  the  north,  and  marked  by  several 
fourth-magnitude  stars,  are  the  right  arm  and  hand.  In 
the  girdle,  north-west  of  Mirach,  are  Mu  and  Nu,  two 
fourth-magnitude  stars,  which  serve  as  pointers  to  the 
famous  Andromeda  nebula,  which  is  just  west  of  Nu. 
South  of  Delta  are  three  fourth-magnitude  stars  which 
indicate  the  extended  left  arm. 

The  constellation,  as  it  rises  in  the  eastern  sky  during 
the  early  evenings  in  autumn,  presents  a  most  beautiful 
appearance.  The  head  of  the  figure  comes  into  view 
first,  preceded  by  the  square  of  Pegasus,  the  feet  of 
the  beautiful  maiden  coming  up  last.  As  it  nears 
the  western  horizon,  the  head  is  seen  to  set  first, 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  155 

the  shackled  ankles  being  displayed  above  the  horizon 
after  the  rest  of  the  figure  has  disappeared — a  rather 
undignified  exit  for  a  princess. 

According  to  Greek  fable,  Andromeda  was  the  beauti- 
ful daughter  of  Cepheus,  King  of  Ethiopia.  Her  mother, 
Queen  Cassiopeia,  had  imprudently  boasted  far  and 
wide  that  the  princess  and  herself  were  more  beautiful 
than  the  fairest  of  the  Nereids  or  nymphs  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  to  punish  her  pride,  Neptune,  at 
the  request  of  the  jealous  nymphs,  sent  an  inundation 
and  a  terrible  sea-monster  to  devastate  the  coasts  of 
the  kingdom.  Cassiopeia  and  Cepheus,  alarmed  at  the 
outlook,  appealed  for  help  to  the  oracle  of  Ammon,  and 
deliverance  was  promised  if  the  Princess  Andromeda 
was  given  as  a  prey  to  the  sea-monster.  The  graceless 
parents,  yielding  to  the  clamour  of  the  people,  chained 
the  innocent  Andromeda  to  a  great  rock  on  the  seashore, 
near  Joppa,  and  left  her  for  the  monster  Cetus  to 
devour.  There  she  was  found  and  saved  by  the  cham- 
pion Perseus,  just  returning  through  the  air  from  the 
destruction  of  Medusa,  who  slew  the  monster  and  later 
obtained  the  fair  princess  as  his  wife. 

Chained  to  a  rock  she  stood;  young  Perseus  stay'd 
His  rapid  flight,  to  woo  the  beauteous  maid. 

As  the  legend  runs,  the  enraged  Phineus,  brother  of 
Cepheus,  to  whom  Andromeda  had  previously  been 
promised,  opposed  the  nuptials,  and  this  gave  rise  to 
the  famous  fight  of  Phineus  and  Perseus  at  the  wed- 
ding, in  which  the  former  and  all  his  associates  were 
slain.  After  her  death  Minerva  placed  her  among  the 
stars,  with  Perseus,  Cepheus,  and  Cassiopeia.  Charles 
Kingsley  in  his  Andromeda  makes  Aphrodite  thus 
beautifully  describe  her  place: 


156  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

I  set  thee 
High  for  a  star  in  the  heavens,  a  sign  and  a  hope  for  the 

seamen, 
Spreading  thy  long  white  arms  all  night  in  the  heights  of  the 

ether, 
Hard  by  thy  sire  and  the  hero,  thy  spouse,  while  near  thee 

thy  mother 

Sits  in  her  ivory  chair,  as  she  plaits  ambrosial  tresses ; 
All  night  long  thou  wilt  shine. 

From  Perses,  the  first-born  of  Perseus  and  Androm- 
eda, the  proud  Persian  kings  are  said  to  have  claimed 
their  descent. 

The  principal  star  of  the  constellation  is  Alpheratz, 
or  Alpha  Andromedae,  the  north-eastern  star  in  the 
square  of  Pegasus,  and  sometimes  known  as  Androm- 
eda's Head.  It  is  a  white,  second-magnitude  star, 
with  a  dark  companion — revealed  by  the  spectroscope 
—revolving  round  it,  in  a  period  estimated  at  about 
one  hundred  days.  It  is  one  of  the  "Three  Guides'* 
marking  the  equinoctial  colure.  A  line  drawn  from 
Polaris  through  Caph,  the  outer-star  of  the  "W"  in 
Cassiopeia,  continued  for  about  thirty  degrees,  points 
directly  to  it.  It  rises  in  the  north-east,  and  occupies 
nearly  eight  hours  in  reaching  the  meridian  when  it  is 
seven-eighths  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the 
zenith.  It  rises  when  the  sun  sets  on  August  24th,  and 
culminates  at  9  P.M.  on  November  loth.  Astrologically 
it  portends  honour  and  riches. 

Gamma,  or  Almaak,  a  star  of  nearly  the  second 
magnitude  (2.3),  is  interesting  as  being  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  triple  stars  in  the  heavens,  producing  a  fine 
contrast  of  colours.  It  is  of  a  topaz-yellow  colour,  and 
has  an  emerald-green  companion  of  the  fifth  magnitude 
which  is  in  itself  a  double,  having  an  eighth-magnitude 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XV.     The  Great  Nebula  in  Andromeda 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  157 

companion  of  a  bluish  colour.  Its  duplicity  was  dis- 
covered by  Johann  Mayer  in  1788,  while  Wilhelm 
Struve  found  its  companion  to  be  a  close  double  in  1842. 
The  principal  star  is  easily  separated  in  an  ordinary 
telescope.  The  first  and  second  companions  form  a 
binary  with  a  period  of  about  fifty-four  years,  but 
require  a  very  powerful  glass  to  show  them  properly. 
Almaak  forms  with  the  stars  Algenib  and  Algol  in 
Perseus  an  almost  right-angled  triangle  opening  to- 
wards Cassiopeia.  An  imaginary  line  from  Polaris  to 
Epsilon  in  Cassiopeia,  continued  for  about  an  equal 
distance,  points  to  it.  The  Andromedid  or  Bielid 
meteors,  of  about  November  23d,  radiate  from  its 
vicinity.  It  is  approaching  the  solar  system  at  the 
rate  of  nearly  seven  miles  a  second. 

Beta,  or  Mirach,  a  second-magnitude  star  in  the  girdle, 
is  of  a  yellowish  colour,  and  about  midway  between  it 
and  Alpheratz  is  Delta,  which  marks  the  radiant  point 
of  a  display  of  meteors  on  or  about  July  2ist. 

The  most  interesting  object  in  the  constellation  is  the 
famous  nebula  31  M,  commonly  known  as  the  Great 
Andromeda  Nebula  (Plate  XV.),  the  first  detailed 
observations  of  which  were  made  by  Simon  Marius  in 
1612.  It  is  near  the  star  Nu,  a  short  distance  north  of 
Mirach,  and  is  the  grandest  nebula  in  the  entire  sky, 
with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  that  of  Orion.  On  a 
clear  night,  when  the  moon  is  absent,  it  can  be  seen 
with  the  naked  eye,  as  a  tiny  wisp  of  white  light.  It 
shows  up  in  an  opera- glass,  or  a  binocular  field-glass, 
as  a  small  dim  cloud,  and  in  a  two-inch  telescope  has 
an  elongated  appearance,  with  a  brighter  spot  in  the 
centre.  It  is,  in  truth,  a  magnificent  spectacle,  and 
looks  not  unlike  the  planet  Saturn,  surrounded  by  its 
rings.  It  is  often  mistaken  by  the  uninitiated  for  a 


158  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

comet,  and  is  the  only  true  nebula  that  can  be  seen 
without  optical  aid.  Newcomb  relates  that  a  skipper, 
fresh  from  a  trip  across  the  Atlantic,  once  visited  the 
Harvard  College  Observatory,  to  tell  Professor  Bond 
that  he  had  seen  a  small  comet  which  remained  in  sight 
during  his  entire  voyage.  The  object  proved  to  be  the 
Andromeda  nebula.  Its  longer  diameter  is  estimated 
to  be  more  than  half  a  million  times  the  distance  of  the 
earth  from  the  sun.  It  was  formerly  thought  to  be 
lens-shaped,  but  has  turned  out  to  be  a  huge  spiral 
coiled  in  a  plane  only  slightly  inclined  to  the  plane  of 
sight.  It  is  a  white  nebula,  and  according  to  Julius 
Scheiner  gives  a  continuous  spectrum  without  dark 
lines,  which  would  imply  that  it  is  not  a  mass  of  in- 
candescent gas,  but  must  be  composed  of  something 
in  a  solid  or  liquid  form.  Recent  observations  have  led 
some  astronomers  to  believe  that  it  consists  of  myriads ' 
of  small  solid  particles — meteorites — travelling  round 
their  common  centre  of  gravity,  in  intersecting  orbits, 
the  constantly  occurring  collisions  between  the  solid 
meteorites  generating  heat  enough  to  cause  them  to 
glow.  It  is  by  far  the  largest  and  most  conspicuous 
of  the  spiral  nebulae,  and  is  approximately  nineteen 
light  years  distant. 

In  August,  1885,  a  new  star,  or  Nova,  of  the  sixth 
magnitude  suddenly  blazed  out  close  to  the  bright 
nucleus  of  the  nebula.  It  remained  visible  with  tele- 
scopes for  about  a  year,  and  then  faded  from  view. 

Cepheus 

(The  Ethiopian  King) 

Lying  across  the  meridian,  between  Cassiopeia  and 
the  Dragon's  head,  is  the  rather  faint,  but  highly  in- 
teresting, constellation  Cepheus,  the  King.  The  entire 


The  Night-Sky  of  Autumn  159 

figure  is  about  twenty  degrees  in  length,  its  five  bright- 
est stars  forming  a  rude  square,  surmounted  by  an 
isosceles  triangle.  It  is  sometimes  called  the  "  Little 
Diamond,"  in  contradistinction  to  the  "Big  Diamond'* 
of  Pegasus,  and  may  be  readily  found  by  carrying  the 
eye  from  the  "Pointers"  through,  or  very  close  to,  the 
North  Star.  The  constellation  contains  only  one  star 
brighter  than  the  third  magnitude,  namely,  Alpha 
Cephei,  formerly  called  Alderamin,  which  with  Beta, 
or  Alphirk,  a  bright  third-magnitude  star,  lying  about 
eight  degrees  nearer  the  pole,  points  almost  directly  to 
Polaris. 

On  the  celestial  maps  Cepheus  is  represented  as 
sitting  near  his  wife  Cassiopeia,  in  regal  state,  with  a 
crown  of  stars  upon  his  head,  carrying  a  sceptre,  ex- 
tended toward  Cassiopeia,  in  his  left  hand,  and  hold- 
ing his  robes  with  the  right.  His  head  lies  in  the  Milky 
Way,  while  his  left  foot  is  on  Polaris.  Aratus  thus 
alludes  to  the  constellation: 

Cepheus  himself  just  behind  Cynosura 

Stands  like  one  spreading  both  his  arms  abroad. 

According  to  legend  Cepheus  was  an  Ethiopian  king, 
son  of  Belus,  husband  of  Cassiopeia,  and  father  of 
Andromeda.  He  has  also  been  identified  by  some 
with  the  godless  and  tyrannical  Cheops,  the  builder  of 
the  Great  Pyramid.  He  was  one  of  the  Argonauts,  and 
was  changed  into  a  constellation  after  his  death. 

The  brightest  star  in  the  constellation  is  Alpha 
a  second-and-a-half  magnitude  star  (2.6),  in  the  King's 
right  shoulder.  It  will  be  the  north  polar-star  about 
fifty-six  hundred  years  hence.  Beta,  a  white,  third- 
magnitude  star  (3.3),  in  the  girdle,  is  a  beautiful  tele- 
scopic double  with  an  eighth-magnitude  companion  of  a 


160  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

bluish  colour.  The  star  Delta  is  an  interesting  variable 
(max.  3.7,  min.  4.6),  with  a  period  of  five  days,  eight 
hours,  forty-seven  minutes,  and  thirty-nine  seconds. 
Its  variability  was  discovered  by  Goodricke  in  1784. 
It  is  a  typical  example  of  the  Cepheid  variables,  which, 
unlike  the  Algol  variables,  have  no  period  when  the 
brightness  is  constant,  the  light-changes  being  con- 
tinuous. It  is  also  an  easy  telescopic  double,  the  larger 
component  being  of  a  deep  yellow  colour,  while  the 
smaller  companion  star,  which  is  of  the  seventh  and  a 
half  magnitude,  is  of  a  bluish  tinge. 

The  star  Mu,  about  half-way  between  Alpha  and 
Zeta,  famous  as  Sir  William  Herschel's  "Garnet  Star," 
is  the  reddest  naked-eye  star  in  the  sky.  It  is  an  inter- 
esting variable,  the  variations  of  its  light  lying  between 
the  fourth  and  sixth  magnitudes,  but  in  irregular 
periods.  It  is  a  fine  object  in  an  opera-glass  or  binocular 
field-glass.  During  the  latter  part  of  June,  a  number  of 
small  meteors  radiate  from  a  point  near  Gamma,  a 
fourth-magnitude  star  which  marks  the  left  foot  of  the 
King. 

Glide  on  in  your  beauty,  ye  youthful  spheres, 

To  weave  the  dance  that  measures  the  years; 

Glide  on,  in  the  glory  and  gladness  sent 

To  the  furthest  wall  of  the  firmament — 

The  boundless  visible  smile  of  Him 

To  the  veil  of  whose  brow  your  lamps  are  dim. 

BRYANT,  The  Song  of  the  Stars. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  WINTER 

Like  silver  lamps  in  a  distant  shrine, 
The  stars  are  sparkling  bright. 

W.  C.  Dix. 

WITH  the  passing  of  the  autumn  months  the  interest- 
ing summer  constellations  sink  steadily  lower  in  the 
western  heavens,  while  in  the  east  the  brilliant  winter 
groups,  in  order,  rise  to  take  their  place.  During  the 
long  nights  of  winter,  the  whole  evening  sky  becomes 
filled  with  resplendent  stars.  Throughout  the  silent 
watches,  lovely  in  their  individuality,  charming  in 
their  friendliness,  dazzling  in  their  splendour,  enchant- 
ing in  their  beauty,  they  are,  as  Elgie  says,  magnificent, 
sublime ! 

The  winter  branch  of  the  Galaxy  or  Milky  Way,  with 
its  serpent-like  streams  of  star-mist  involving  in  its 
windings  many  of  the  constellations,  stretches  across 
the  sky  from  south-east  to  north-west,  a  little  north 
of  the  zenith.  High  up  in  the  south-south-east,  with 
its  centre  on  the  equator,  is  the  magnificent  Orion, 
bejewelled  with  seven  brilliants,  and  universally  re- 
garded as  the  most  splendid  of  all  the  constellations: 

Whoso  kens  not  him  in  cloudless  night 
Gleaming  aloft,  shall  cast  his  eyes  in  vain 
To  find  a  brighter  sign  in  all  the  heaven, 
ii  161 


162  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Above  Orion — the  Warrior  of  the  ancient  Mayas  of 
Yucatan — are  the  beautiful  Heavenly  Twins  astride 
the  ecliptic,  and  high  overhead  the  Charioteer,  princi- 
pally noted  for  its  glorious  lucida  Capella  with  its 
attendant  kids.  Toward  the  west,  on  the  meridian, 
is  the  threatening  Bull  backing  across  the  heavens, 
with  its  interesting  groups,  the  glittering  Pleiades  and 
the  tristful  Hyades,  and  the  blinking,  ruddy  Aldebaran, 
the  standard  first -magnitude  star.  Under  the  mighty 
Orion  are  the  faint  groups,  Lepus,  the  Hare,  with  its 
Crimson  Star,  and  Columba,  or  Noah's  Dove.  Near-by, 
on  the  left,  are  the  brilliant  Dog  Stars — the  irradiant 
bluish-white  Sinus,  in  the  Greater  Dog,  the  brightest 
star  in  the  whole  firmament,  and  the  great,  white 
Procyon,  in  the  Lesser  Dog. 

The  Greater  Bear  is  seen  steadily  pursuing  his  journey 
up  the  slope  of  the  north-east  sky,  while  exactly  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  pole  is  the  bright  W-shaped  group 
Cassiopeia.  Bordering  the  Greater  Bear  on  the  south 
and  east  are  the  very  faint  little  groups  of  the  Lynx  or 
Tiger,  and  the  Lesser  Lion,  while  over  in  the  north- 
west, north  of  Pegasus,  is  the  Lizard.  The  Lesser  Bear 
is  seen  hanging  head  downward,  with  the  pole  star  at 
the  tip  of  its  tail,  and  near  the  horizon,  in  the  hollow 
of  The  Dipper,  are  the  Hunting  Dogs,  with  the  bright 
Cor  Caroli.  On  the  mendian,"Be?ween  the  Charioteer 
and  the  pole,  is  the  barren-looking  constellation  of 
Camelopardalis,  the  Giraffe,  while  below  the  pole, 
reaching  down  almost  to  the  northern  horizon,  is  the 
great  Dragon. 

In  the  east,  the  Lion,  with  its  "Sickle"  and  beautiful 
white  star  Regulus,  is  emerging  from  the  ground,  while 
just  west  of  it,  along  the  ecliptic,  is  the  wonderful 
Praesepe,  or  Bee-hive  Cluster,  in  the  constellation  of 


CHART 
FORABOUT  DEC.  23 

fTTie  Winter  Solstice! 


DEC.  l,  H  P.M. 

DEC. 15. 10  P.M. 
JAN.  I,  9  P.M. 
JAN.  15, 8  P.M. 

FEB.  I.  7  P.M. 

FEB.  14.6P.M. 


THE  ZODIACAL  BAND 
EXTENDS  8*ON  EACH 
SIDE  OFTHE  ECLIPTIC. 


StarMagnttudes 
2>*4' 


CHART  IV-WINTER  MGHT  SKY 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  163 

the  Crab,  the  faintest  of  all  the  constellations  of  the 
zodiac.  In  the  south-east,  the  head  of  Hydra,  the 
great  Water-snake,  has  just  risen,  soon  to  be  followed 
by  the  lonely  rusty-looking  Alphard,  in  the  reptile's 
heart.  Stretching  from  the  Water-snake  to  Orion 
are  a  number  of  faint  stars,  which  make  up  the  little- 
known  group  of  Monoceros,  or  the  Unicorn. 

Nearly  overhead,  just  west  of  the  meridian,  is  the 
champion  Perseus,  while  west  of  him,  and  below  Queen 
Cassiopeia,  is  the  Princess  Andromeda,  and  between 
the  Queen  and  the  Dragon  is  Cepheus,  the  King — a 
truly  Royal  Family,  this  "harassed  house  of  Cepheus." 
South  of  Andromeda,  and  about  half-way  between  the 
zenith  and  the  western  horizon,  are  Aries,  the  Ram,  and 
the  Triangle,  while  south-westerly  from  these  is  the 
constellation  Pisces,  the  Fishes,  now  the  leader  of  the 
zodiac.  South  of  the  Fishes  and  the  Ram  is  the  broad 
constellation  Cetus,  the  Whale,  in  the  neck  of  which, 
but  usually  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  is  its  most  inter- 
esting star,  the  celebrated  variable  Mira.  Low  down 
towards  the  southern  horizon  will  be  seen  part  of  the 
long,  winding,  starry  river  Eridanus,  the  Mississippi 
of  the  sky.  Below  Eridanus  and  the  Whale  is  the 
unimportant  southern  constellation  Fornax,  the 
Chemical  Furnace. 

Already  the  poetic  Eagle,  the  Water-bearer,  and  the 
Goat-fish  have  wholly  withdrawn  from  the  evening 
sky,  and  with  the  disappearance  from  view  of  the 
Winged  Horse  with  its  Great  Square,  which  is 
slowly  approaching  the  western  horizon,  and  of  the 
Northern  Cross,  which,  upright  in  the  north-west, 
is  gradually  sinking  below  the  ground,  the  trans- 
formation of  the  summer  into  the  winter  sky  will  be 
complete. 


1 64  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Cetus 

(The  Whale) 

Lying  below  Pisces  and  Aries,  westward  from  Orion 
and  almost  entirely  south  of  the  equator,  is  Cetus,  one 
of  the  largest  constellations  in  the  heavens.  It  is 
about  fifty  degrees  in  length,  and  from  twenty-five  to 
more  than  forty  degrees  in  breadth.  It  is  represented 
as  a  huge  sea-monster,  making  his  way  eastward,  and 
is  often  called  the  Whale,  although  it  greatly  resembles 
a  walrus.  The  head  is  marked  by  a  small  pentagon  of 
stars,  namely  Alpha,  or  Menkar,  Gamma,  Xi,  Mu,  and 
Lambda,  directly  below  Aries,  and  is  the  only  part  of 
the  creature  above  the  equator.  It  is  readily  identified 
from  the  fact  that  the  V  of  Hyades  points  to  the  stars 
Alpha  and  Gamma,  which  are  only  about  five  degrees 
apart.  Besides,  Alpha  Ceti  forms  an  equilateral  tri- 
angle with  the  Pleiades  and  Alpha  Arietis.  The  body 
of  the  monster  is  marked  by  a  kite-shaped  figure  formed 
by  the  stars  Beta,  Eta,  Theta,  Zeta,  and  Tau,  while 
the  tail  is  indicated  by  Beta  and  Iota. 

The  principal  stars  of  the  constellation,  visible  from 
October  to  February,  form  the  outline  of  a  lounge-chair, 
or  of  an  easy  chair  with  the  back  falling  backwards.  Then 
too,  four  of  its  western  stars  of  the  third  magnitude  form 
an  inverted  bowl,  a  little  larger  than  that  of  the  Archer's 
so-called  milk  dipper.  Altogether  Cetus  contains  two 
stars  of  the  second  magnitude,  six  of  the  third,  seven  of 
the  fourth,  and  about  twenty- four  of  the  fifth. 

In  Greek  mythology,  Cetus  is  the  dusky  sea-monster 
sent  by  Neptune  to  devour  Andromeda. 

The  south  wind  brings  her  foe 
The  ocean  beast. 

ARATUS. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  165 

It  was  turned  to  stone  on  beholding  the  bleeding  head 
of  Medusa  which  Perseus  held  before  it.  To  com- 
memorate the  valour  of  the  gallant  hero,  it  was 
afterwards  placed  among  the  stars. 

Alpha  Ceti,or  Menkar,  the  leader  of  the  constellation, 
but  no  longer  its  brightest  star,  is  in  the  nose  of  the 
imaginary  whale.  It  is  a  beautiful,  orange-coloured 
star  of  the  second-and-a-half  magnitude,  with  a  fifth- 
and-a-half  magnitude  star  of  a  bluish  tint  in  the  same 
field.  It  is  an  interesting  object,  but  not  a  true  double. 

The  lucida  of  Get  us  is  now  Beta,  sometimes  called 
Diphda,  or  Deneb  Kaitos.  It  is  a  yellowish  star  of  the 
second  magnitude  and  marks  the  south-western  part 
of  the  constellation,  and  the  tail  of  the  whale.  When 
it  passes  the  meridian,  it  is  about  one- third  of  the  way 
up  from  the  horizon. 

The  most  wonderful  object  in  Cetus  is  the  star  Omi- 
cron,  situated  in  the  middle  of  the  Whale's  neck,  and 
commonly  known  as  Mira,  the  "  Wonderful."  It  is  a 
notable  variable  with  an  average  period  of  about  33 1|  | 
days.  Its  variability  was  discovered  by  David  Fabricius, 
an  unprofessional  Dutch  astronomer,  on  August  13, 1596, 
and  it  bears  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  variable 
star  of  which  there  is  any  recorded  observation.  It  is 
the  type  of  the  numerous  class  of  stars  known  as  long- 
period  variables.  At  its  maximum  its  spectrum  shows 
the  presence  of  glowing  hydrogen.  Like  most  variables, 
it  is  of  a  reddish  colour,  especially  when  fading.  Its 
variations  are  more  or  less  irregular  both  in  period 
and  brightness.  It  has  a  maximum  varying  from 
the  second  to  the  fifth  magnitude,  and  a  minimum  vary- 
ing from  the  ninth  to  the  tenth  magnitude.  For  five 
months,  on  the  average,  the  star  is  invisible  to  the 
naked  eye.  It  then  slowly  reappears,  increasing  in 


i66  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

brightness,  until  in  three  months  it  reaches  its  maximum 
of  brilliancy.  It  remains  stationary  for  about  two 
weeks,  and  then  fades  away,  for  about  three  months, 
sinking  again  so  low  as  to  be  invisible  except  in  the 
telescope.  At  its  best  it  outshines  the  North  Star.  It 
reaches  its  greatest  brilliancy  for  1914  in  April;  for  1915 
in  March;  for  1916  in  February,  etc.  So  far  the  varia- 
tions of  Mira,  and  of  long-period  variables  generally, 
remain  unaccounted  for.  Whether  the  irregularities 
may  not  be,  like  the  maxima  and  minima  of  sun- 
spots,  phases  of  some  general  law,  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  problems  of  modern  astronomy. 

Omicron,  or  Mira  Ceti,  is  about  twenty-three  light 
years  distant,  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  nearly 
five  miles  a  second,  and  is  receding  from  the  solar 
system  at  the  rate  of  fity-four  miles  a  second. 

Tau  Ceti,  the  south-east  star  in  the  inverted  bowl, 
is  of  the  third  and  a  half  magnitude.  It  is  only  nine 
and  four-fifths  light  years  distant,  and  has  a  proper  or 
cross  motion  of  seventeen  miles  a  second.  Zeta,  the 
north-east  star  in  the  bowl,  is  an  optical  double, 
the  principal  star  being  of  the  third  and  a  half  magnitude 
and  the  companion  star  of  the  ninth.  The  star  Gamma, 
six  degrees  west  of  Alpha,  is  a  very  fine  double.  The 
larger  star  is  of  the  third  and  a  half  magnitude  and  of  a 
yellowish  colour,  while  the  smaller  star  is  of  nearly  the 
sixth  magnitude,  and  of  a  bluish  shade. 

Pisces 
(The  Fishes) 

The  constellation  Pisces,  the  Fishes,  is  the  twelfth 
sign  and  first  constellation  of  the  zodiac.  It  is  a  rather 
large  but  dull-looking  constellation,  occupying  a  tri- 
angular space,  directly  above  Cetus,  and  south  of 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  167 

Andromeda  and  Pegasus.  It  has  no  conspicuous  stars, 
but  is  important  because  of  its  position,  as  owing  to  the 
precession  of  the  equinoxes,  it  now  occupies  the  place 
of  the  first  sign  (Aries),  and  is  the  leader  of  the  zodiac. 
In  it  lies  the  vernal  equinox,  or  the  point  where  the  sun 
crosses  the  equator  on  its  way  north  in  the  spring. 
The  prime  meridian  of  the  heavens  passes  through 
this  crossing-point  of  the  ecliptic  and  the  equator,  and 
from  it  the  right  ascension  of  all  the  stars  is  reckoned. 
The  constellation  is  usually  represented  on  celestial 
maps  by  the  figure  of  two  fishes,  quite  widely  separated, 
but  held  fast  by  long  ribbons  attached  to  their  tails, 
and  tied  in  a  knot,  which  rests  on  Cetus's  neck,  and  is 
marked  by  the  star  Al  Rischa.  The  Northern  Fish 
is  represented  by  a  group  of  fourth-magnitude  stars 
between  Aries  and  Andromeda,  and  the  Western  Fish 
by  a  "circlet"  or  lozenge-shaped  figure  traced  by  seven 
fourth-  and  fifth-magnitude  stars,  between  Pegasus  and 
Aquarius. 

The  Fishes  float,  one  ever  uppermost. 

Both  are  united  by  a  band. 
Their  tails  point  to  an  angle 
Filled  by  a  single  goodly  star. 

ARATUS. 

A  line  drawn  from  Alpheratz  to  Gamma  Pegasi  is 
parallel  to  the  body  of  the  "Northern  Fish,"  while 
another  line  from  Gamma  Pegasi  to  Markab  is  parallel 
to  the  "Western  Fish." 

In  all,  Pisces  contains  one  star  of  the  third  magnitude, 
ten  of  the  fourth,  and  about  eighteen  of  the  fifth. 

In  the  early  legends  the  Southern  Fish — Piscis 
Australis — was  the  parent  of  the  Northern  and  Western 


i68  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Fishes,  and  fable  associates  all  three  with  the  story  of 
Venus  transforming  herself  and  her  son  Cupid  into 
fishes  to  escape  the  fury  of  the  giant  Typhon,  when  he 
assailed  the  gods  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates.  To 
commemorate  the  event,  Minerva  placed  two  fishes 
among  the  constellations. 

In  astrology,  Pisces  is  the  House  of  Jupiter  and  the 
Exaltation  of  Venus.  It  is  the  ruling  sign  for  those 
born  between  February  iQth  and  March  2Oth.  Like 
Scorpio,  it  is  a  feminine  sign  and  unfortunate.  As 
Olcott  relates,  a  fish  was  always  the  symbol  of  the 
early  Christian  faith,  and  the  figure  may  be  seen  in 
many  of  the  stained-glass  windows  in  the  churches  of 
to-day. 

The  chief  star  in  the  constellation  is  Al  Rischa,  or 
Alpha  Piscium,  a  third-magnitude  star  in  the  knot 
where  the  two  ribbons  binding  the  fishes  together  are 
tied,  and  is  sometimes  called  the  "Knot  Star."  It  is 
a  beautiful  double,  about  seven  degrees  above  and  to 
the  right  of  Mira,  but  the  components  are  so  near  each 
other  as  to  be  somewhat  difficult  with  a  three-inch 
telescope.  The  components  have  a  separation  of  only 
two  and  a  half  seconds  of  arc,  and  the  distance  appears 
to  be  decreasing.  The  principal  star  is  of  a  pale  green 
colour,  and  the  companion  star,  which  is  of  the  fifth 
magnitude,  is  of  a  bluish  colour.  It  culminates  at 
9  P.M.,  December  7th. 

From  Al  Rischa,  the  stars  diverge  in  winding  lines 
northward  to  the  figure  of  the  Northern  Fish,  and  west- 
ward to  the  Western  Fish.  Zeta  Piscium  is  an  easy 
and  pretty  double  lying  between  Mu  and  Epsilon,  in 
the  ribbon  leading  from  the  Western  Fish.  The  prin- 
cipal star  is  of  the  fifth-and-a-half  magnitude  and  white 
in  colour,  while  the  companion  star  is  of  the  sixth-and- 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  169 

a-half  magnitude,  and  of  a  greyish  colour.  Psi  Piscium, 
in  the  Northern  Fish,  is  also  an  easy  double;  both 
components  being  white  in  colour,  and  of  theu  fifth- 
and-a-half  magnitude. 

Lacerta 

(The  Lizard) 

Lacerta,  the  Lizard,  is  a  small,  inconspicuous  aster- 
ism,  introduced  by  Hevelius  at  Dantzig,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  situated  in  the 
space  between  Cepheus,  Cygnus,  Pegasus,  and  Androm- 
eda, and  contains  no  stars  brighter  than  the  fourth 
magnitude.  It  marks  the  radiant  point  of  the  Lacertid 
meteors,  and  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  April  I3th.  It  is 
notable  as  being  the  asterism  in  which  a  new  star — 
Nova  Lacertae — flared  up  in  1910.  The  Nova  was 
discovered  by  the  Rev.  T.  E.  Aspin,  on  December  3Oth, 
and  at  its  greatest  brightness  had  attained  to  about 
the  fifth  magnitude. 

Camelopardalis 

(The  Giraffe) 

Lying  between  Auriga  and  Ursa  Minor,  is  the  faint 
straggling  constellation  Camelopardalis,  the  Giraffe. 
It  was  introduced  by  Hevelius  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  is  altogether  dull  and  unimportant.  It 
sprawls  over  a  large  area  of  sky,  and  contains  no  stars 
brighter  than  the  fourth  magnitude.  It  was  supposed 
by  Bartseh  to  represent  the  camel  that  carried  Rebecca 
to  Isaac. 

Taurus 

(The  Bull) 

Underneath  Auriga  and  Perseus,  between  Aries  and 
Gemini,  lies  Taurus,  the  Bull,  the  second  sign  and  third 


i;o  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

constellation  of  the  zodiac.  It  is  visible  in  the  evening 
sky  from  September  until  the  following  May.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  notable  of  all  the  constellations,  and 
was  originally  the  leader  of  the  celestial  hosts.  The 
stellar  Ram  succeeded  next,  and  now  the  Fishes  lead 
the  year,  soon  to  be  followed  by  Aquarius.  Virgil 
thus  wrote  of  it,  as  early  as  the  century  preceding  the 
Christian  era: 

The  milk-white  Bull  with  golden  horns 
Leads  on  the  new-born  year. 

Among  the  finds  in  the  excavations  at  Thebes  is  a 
sepulchre  on  the  walls  of  which  Taurus  is  portrayed  as 
the  first  of  the  zodiacal  signs.  Over  four  thousand 
years  ago  it  marked  the  vernal  equinox.  The  great 
Tauric  festival  of  the  Druids,  a  survival  of  which  is  the 
festival  May  Day,  commemorated  the  entrance  of  the 
sun  into  this  constellation. 

On  celestial  maps  the  Bull  represents  the  animal  that 
Orion  is  supposed  to  be  hunting  through  the  heavens, 
although  little  besides  the  head,  horns,  and  forelegs 
have  reached  the  sky.  It  is  depicted  as  charging  down 
upon  the  mighty  hunter,  albeit  it  rises  backward,  and, 
as  if  continually  on  the  defensive,  backs  all  the  way 
across  the  heavens  (Frontispiece).  The  constellation 
contains  within  its  border  two  conspicuous  star-groups 
— the  Hyades  and  the  Pleiades — besides  a  number  of 
notable  stars.  Altogether,  it  has  one  star  of  the  first 
magnitude,  one  of  the  second,  two  of  the  third,  eleven 
of  about  the  fourth,  and  a  great  number  of  the  fifth 
and  sixth. 

In  Greek  fable  it  is  the  Bull  which  carried  the  fair 
Europa  across  the  seas  to  Crete.  Europa  was  the 
daughter  of  Agenor,  King  of  Crete  (twin  brother  of 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  1 7 1 

Belus),  and  from  her  Europe  took  its  name.  Her  sur- 
passing beauty  charmed  Jupiter,  who  assumed  the 
form  of  a  snow-white  bull,  and  mingling  with  the  herds 
of  Agenor,  approached  her,  as  she  and  her  maidens 
were  sporting  on  the  sea-shore  and  gathering  flowers. 
Europa  caressed  the  animal,  and  encouraged  by  his 
apparent  tameness,  had  the  temerity  to  mount  his 
back.  Jupiter,  taking  advantage  of  the  situation, 
dashed  into  the  sea  and  swam  away  with  her  in  safety. 
In  his  Palace  of  Art,  Tennyson,  who  like  Virgil 
loved  astronomy,  thus  refers  to  Europa: 

Sweet  Europa's  mantle  blew  unclasp'd, 

From  off  her  shoulder  backward  borne: 

From  one  hand  droop'd  a  crocus;  one  hand  grasp'd 

The  mild  bull's  golden  horn. 

In  the  Ducal  Palace  at  Venice,  in  the  same  room  with 
the  picture  of  Bacchus  and  Ariadne  by  Tintoret,  once 
one  of  the  noblest  pictures  in  the  world,  is  a  celebrated 
painting  by  Paul  Veronese,  depicting  the  kidnapping 
of  Europa. 

The  "Hyades"  group,  a  beautiful  V-shaped  cluster 
in  the  face  of  the  imaginary  Bull,  is  one  of  the  best 
known  star-groups  in  the  heavens.  It  forms  one  of  the 
most  striking  features  of  the  winter  night-skies,  and  is 
a  fine  sight  with  an  opera-glass  or  a  good  field-glass. 
It  is  much  more  spread  out  than  the  Pleiades  group, 
and  is  composed  of  brighter  stars.  All  told,  it  contains 
one  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  five  of  the  fourth, 
four  of  the  fifth,  and  a  few  of  the  sixth. 

The  Hyades  were  the  seven  daughters  of  Atlas  and 
^Ethra,  and  together  with  their  half-sisters,  the  Pleiades, 
were  called  the  Atlantides.  According  to  one  legend, 
they  were  entrusted  by  Jupiter  with  the  care  of  the 


172  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

infant  Bacchus,  and  were  afterwards  rewarded  by  him 
with  a  place  in  the  sky.  They  were  associated  by  the 
ancients  with  the  ushering  in  of  the  rainy  season,  and 
were  known  by  classic  writers  as  the  "rain  stars.'* 
Homer  and  Pliny  alluded  to  them  as  causing  storms 
and  tempests  both  on  land  and  sea.  There  is  reason 
to  suppose  that  their  "watery"  or  "moist"  reputation 
may  be  partly  due  to  the  legend  that  they  were  meta- 
morphosed into  stars  for  immoderately  bewailing  the 
death  of  their  brother  Hyas,  who  had  been  killed  in 
Libya  by  a  wild  boar. 

The  lower  or  left-hand  corner  of  the  "  V"  is  marked  by 
Aldebaran  (in  the  fiery  right  eye  of  the  enraged  bull),  and 
the  upper  or  right-hand  one  by  Epsilon  (in  the  left  eye), 
while  Gamma  (in  the  nose)  marks  the  angle.  Between 
Epsilon  and  Gamma  in  the  northern  or  right-hand  branch 
of  the  "V"  are  three  fourth-magnitude  stars,  known  as 
the  Deltas,  while  between  Aldebaran  and  Gamma  are  a 
pair  of  fourth-magnitude  stars  called  the  Thetas. 

Aldebaran,  or  Alpha  Tauri,  the  sturdy  leader  of  the 
Hyades  group,  and  the  brightest  star  in  the  constella- 
tion, is  a  standard  first-magnitude  star,  of  a  light-rose 
or  rose-red  colour,  and  is  one  of  the  most  important 
heavenly  bodies.  To  the  Arabs,  who  gave  the  star  its 
name  Aldebaran — meaning  the  "Follower" — because 
it  followed  the  Pleiades,  it  was  also  known  as  the 
"Eye  of  the  Bull."  Mrs.  Sigourney,  in  The  Stars, 
thus  alludes  to  it : 

Go  forth  at  night, 

And  talk  with  Aldebaran,  where  he  flames 
In  the  cold  forehead  of  the  wintry  sky. 

It  is  a  beautiful  double,  but  is  rather  difficult  for  an 
instrument  smaller  than  three-and-a-half -inch.  The 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  173 

companion  star  is  found  to  be  of  the  tenth  magnitude 
and  of  a  bluish  colour. 

Aldebaran  is  the  fourteenth  star  in  order  of  bright- 
ness in  the  entire  heavens,  and  gives  out  about  one 
hundred  and  sixty  times  as  much  light  as  the  sun.  Its 
spectrum  shows  it  to  be  rather  far  advanced  in  physical 
development,  though  it  is  generally  classed  as  belonging 
to  the  solar  type  of  stars.  About  the  last  of  September 
it  appears  in  the  early  evening  sky,  and  is  visible  there- 
after at  some  hour  of  the  night  until  near  the  end  of 
May.  It  rises  an  hour  after  the  misty  little  dipper 
of  the  Pleiades,  and  about  two  and  a  half  hours  after 
Capella,  and  burns  bright 

Like  a  fire  in  the  field  of  night. 

It  requires  seven  hours  to  reach  the  meridian,  when  it  is 
a  little  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  way  up  from  the 
horizon  to  the  zenith.  It  rises  when  the  sun  sets  at 
the  beginning  of  December,  and  culminates  at  9  P.M., 
January  loth.  It  lies  along  the  moon's  path,  and  is 
frequently  occulted  by  that  satellite.  By  reason  of 
its  position  it  is  much  used  by  navigators  in  reckoning 
longitude  at  sea.  It  was  one  of  the  four  Royal  Stars 
of  astrology,  and  was  considered  a  fortunate  star, 
portending  riches  and  honour.  It  is  forty-five  light 
years  distant,  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  eight 
miles  a  second,  and  is  receding  from  the  solar  system  at 
the  rate  of  thirty-four  miles  a  second. 

About  eleven  degrees  to  the  right  or  north-west  of 
Aldebaran  is  a  filmy,  dipper-shaped  little  group  of 
bluish  stars — the  sweet-voiced  Pleiades — the  vanguard 
of  the  winter  starry  host,  and  the  most  remarkable 
naked-eye  group  in  the  heavens.  Appealing  strongly 
to  the  imagination,  and  being  visible  from  every  inhab- 


174  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

ited  quarter  of  the  globe,  it  has  figured  largely  in  the 
myth,  legend,  and  literature  of  every  age  and  race. 
From  the  time  of  Homer  and  Hesiod  down  to  the  present, 
poets  innumerable  have  had  their  fancy  roused  by  the 
wonder  and  mystery  of  this  tiny  cluster  of  twinkling 
stars,  and  have  endeavoured  to  emphasise  in  some  form 
its  mystical  beauty  and  its  charm.  It  was  observed 
and  written  of  in  China  over  four  thousand  years  ago, 
and  the  early  sacred  records  of  Egypt  allude  to  a  time 
when  it  marked  the  position  of  the  vernal  equinox;,  as 
the  great  year  of  the  Pleiades. 

Among  the  many  elegant  metaphors  inspired  by  the 
notable  group  is  that  of  Bayard  Taylor,  who  likened 
the  cluster  to  "a  swarm  of  golden  bees,"  as  also  that 
of  Tennyson,  who  beautifully  describes  it  as  "glittering 
like  a  swarm  of  fire-flies"  in  the  evening's  dusk.  In 
Milton's  description  of  the  Creation  in  Paradise  Lost, 
it  is  said  of  the  sun  that  : 

*  .       .       ,,.         the  grey 
Dawn  and  the  Pleiades  before  him  danc'd 
Shedding  sweet  influence. 


The  Pleiades  (from  the  Greek  xXlw,  to  sail)  lie  on 
the  shoulder  of  the  Bull,  within  four  degrees  of  the 
ecliptic,  and  cover  a  space  of  a  little  more  than  three 
square  degrees.  Nine  of  the  brightest  stars  bear  the 
names  of  Atlas  and  his  seven  daughters,  and  their 
mother,  the  nymph  Pleione.  The  six  which  are  plainly 
visible  to  the  average  eye  are  Alcyone,  Maia,  Electra, 
Atlas,  Merope,  and  Taygeta,  while  Celaeno,  Pleione, 
and  Asterope  hang  on  the  verge  of  visibility.  While 
many  people  can  see  seven,  and  moderately  keen  eyes 
count  nine  Pleiades,  exceptionally  keen-sighted  star- 
gazers  distinguish  anywhere  from  eleven  to  fourteen. 


Harvard  College  Observatory 

PLATE  XVI.     The  Little  Dipper  of  the  Pleiades 

(View  at  culmination) 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  175 

With  an  opera-glass,  thirty  more  stars  may  be  counted, 
and  with  a  two-inch  telescope  about  one  hundred, 
while  the  photographic  plate  reveals  nearly  twenty-five 
hundred. 

The  principal  stars,  which  are  estimated  to  be  almost 
as  far  apart  as  the  distance  from  the  earth  to  the  near- 
est fixed  star,  form  a  rough  outline  of  a  short-handled 
dipper,  called  the  "  little  dipper  of  the  Pleiades."  In 
Plate  XVI.,  from  a  photograph  taken  by  Pickering  at 
Arequipa,  Peru,  the  two  larger  stars  to  the  left,  are 
Atlas,  a  fourth-magnitude  star  at  the  end  of  the  handle 
of  the  dipper,  and  Pleione,  a  star  of  about  the  fifth 
and  a  half  magnitude,  just  above  it.  Situated  at  the 
junction  of  the  handle  with  the  bowl,  is  coy  Alcyone, 
the  peerless  Pleiad,  a  star  of  the  third  magnitude, 
which  some  have  been  pleased  to  term  the  "lotus- 
flower  of  heaven.'* 

An  imaginary  line  running  from  between  Atlas  and 
Pleione,  through  Alcyone  and  onward,  will  pass  through 
Electra,  a  fourth-magnitude  star  in  the  bottom  of  the 
dipper  on  the  outside,  and  the  second  star  in  bright- 
ness in  the  cluster.  South  of  this  imaginary  line  is 
Merope,  a  fourth-  and  a  third-magnitude  star,  in  the 
bottom  of  the  dipper  toward  the  handle.  North  of 
the  line  is  Taygeta,  a  fourth-and-a-half  magnitude  star 
on  the  farther  side  of  the  brim  of  the  dipper.  Between 
Taygeta  and  Alcyone,  in  the  top  of  the  brim,  is  the 
fourth-magnitude  star  Maia,  while  about  half-way 
between  Taygeta  and  Electra,  on  the  farther  side  of 
the  bowl,  is  Celaeno,  a  star  of  about  the  fifth  and  a 
third  magnitude.  Asterope,  the  faintest  star  of  the 
group,  lies  a  short  distance  above  and  to  the  left  of 
Taygeta,  and  is  about  of  the  seventh  magnitude. 

Atlas,  Taygeta,  and  Asterope  are  double  stars.    The 


176  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

two  stars  of  Atlas  are  of  the  fourth  and  the  fifth 
magnitude.  Asterope's  two  stars  are  of  about  the 
seventh  magnitude,  and  Taygeta's  of  the  fourth  and 
a  half  and  the  tenth  magnitude. 

Alcyone,  or  Eta  Tauri, the  "big  sister  " of  the  Pleiades, 
the  brightest  star  in  the  cluster,  is  a  triple  star  even 
in  a  two-inch  telescope,  its  two  smaller  component 
stars  being  of  the  seventh  magnitude,  the  three  together 
forming  a  beautiful  little  triangle.  In  his  Alcyone, 
Archbold  Lampman  describes  it  as 

the  great  and  burning  star, 
Immeasurably  old,  immeasurably  far, 
Surging  forth  its  silver  flame 
Through  eternity. 

It  is  supposed  to  be  sixty  times  more  brilliant  than 
Sirius,  and  is  famous  as  being  the  star  which  the  Ger- 
man astronomer  Madler,  some  sixty  years  ago,  imagined 
to  be*  the  centre  of  revolution  of  the  universe — the 
place  of  the  Almighty,  the  Mansion  of  the  Eternal! 
Madler's  fascinating  theory,  which  was  largely  a  revival 
of  the  old  Hindu  conception  of  the  material  universe, 
and  was  popular  for  a  time,  has,  however,  long  since 
been  rejected.  Alcyone  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  December 
3 1 st.  The  star,  Maia,  has  an  invisible  companion, 
detectable  by  the  spectroscope. 

The  chief  stars  of  the  Pleiades  are  of  the  sirian  type, 
and  are  drifting  across  the  heavens  in  the  same  general 
direction.  They  are  supposed  to  be  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  light  years  distant,  and  are  receding  from  the 
solar  system  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  miles  a  second. 
The  cluster  is,  by  some,  considered  to  be  even  larger 
than  the  Greater  Bear.  Modern  photographs  show  the 
entire  group  to  be  completely  enshrouded  in  a  magnifi- 


Yerkes  Ooservatory 

PLATE  XVII.     The  Nebulosities  of  the  Pleiades 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  177 

cent  tracery  of  nebulous  matter  (Plate  XVII.),  which 
stretches  in  curious  wisps  and  streaks  from  star  to  star. 
From  this  wonderful  mass  of  apparently  intertwisted 
nebulae,  or  "cosmical  fog/'  which  for  ages  may  have 
been  condensing  into  stars,  a  great  system  is  possibly 
developing  and  is  already  in  the  last  stages  of  its  forma- 
tion. Or  again,  it  may  be,  as  some  astronomers  have 
asserted,  that  what  is  seen  is  radiant  matter  ejected 
from  these  great  and  far-off  orbs,  just  as  rare  gaseous 
matter  is  driven  away  from  the  sun  to  form  its  corona, 
but  on  an  inconceivably  more  colossal  scale. 

To  the  Greeks,  the  Pleiades  were  the  daughters  of 
Atlas  and  Pleione,  and  nymphs  of  Diana's  train,  whom 
the  gods  placed  among  the  stars,  near  their  half-sisters, 
the  Hyades.  Their  names  are  Alcyone,  Electra,  Maia, 
Merope,  Taygeta,  Asterope,  and  Celaeno.  Bryant  in 
The  Constellations,  thus  alludes  to  them: 

The  group  of  sister  stars,  which  mothers  love 
To  show  their  wondering  babes,  the  gentle  seven. 

As  the  legend  runs,  they  were  placed  in  the  sky  along 
with  their  father  and  mother  on  account  of  their  filial 
sorrow,  when  their  father,  who  with  the  other  Titans 
made  war  upon  Jupiter,  and  being  conquered,  was 
condemned  to  bear  forever  the  dome  of  heaven  on  his 
head  and  hands.  Another  fable  relates  that  one  day, 
when  strolling  through  the  forest,  the  seven  nymphs 
were  pursued  by  the  hunter  Orion,  who  was  attracted 
by  their  great  beauty,  As  they  fled,  they  prayed  in 
their  distress  to  the  gods  for  rescue,  when  just  as  Orion 
was  about  to  overtake  them,  Jupiter,  in  pity,  changed 
them  into  doves,  and  transferred  them  to  the  heavens. 
The  Pleiad  sisters  were  all  married  to  immortal  gods 
save  one,  Merope,  who  was  wedded  with  a  mortal, 

ia 


1 78  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Sisyphus,  King  of  Corinth,  the  light  of  whose  star 
therefore  grew  dim.  Some  say  her  star  was  the  "lost 
Pleiad,"  the  classical  story  of  which  is  of  very  ancient 
origin  and  well-nigh  universal.  Aratus,  in  the  third 
century  before  the  Christian  era,  thus  wrote  of  the 
Pleiads: 

Their  number  seven,  though  the  myths  oft  say, 
And  poets  feign,  that  one  has  passed  away. 

Electra's  star  is  sometimes  mentioned  as  the  lost  one, 
because,  upon  the  burning  of  Troy,  she  veiled  her  face, 
in  order  not  to  behold  the  ruin  of  that  city,  which  was 
founded  by  her  son  Dardanus. 

Maia,  the  eldest  of  the  Pleiades,  and  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  seven  sisters,  was  the  mother  of  Mer- 
cury by  Jupiter.  Taygeta  was  the  mother  of  Lace- 
dasmon,  who  was  married  to  Sparta,  the  daughter  of 
Eurotas,  and  who  named  his  capital,  the  chief  city  of 
the  Peloponnesus,  after  her.  Celaeno,  who  was  beloved 
by  Neptune,  is  reported  to  have  been  struck  by  light- 
ning, and  her  star  is  regarded  by  some  as  the  "lost 
Pleiad."  Asterope  was  the  wife  of  (Enomaus,  a  son 
of  Mars,  and  was  the  mother  of  the  beautiful  maiden 
Hippodamia,  one  of  whose  suitors  was  Euryalus. 
Pleione,  was  the  mother  of  the  seven  sisters,  and  her 
star,  which  the  spectroscope  reveals  as  variable,  is 
believed  by  Pickering  to  be  the  true  "lost  Pleiad." 
It  is  now  about  twice  as  bright  as  it  was  fifty  years  ago. 
Then,  too,  according  to  some,  the  famous  star  that 
appears  to  have  been  lost,  may  have  been  a  Nova, 
which  has  faded  from  view. 

Biblical  references  to  the  group  are  found  in  Job 
xxxviii.,  31,  and  Amos  V.,  8.  The  inquiry  addressed 
by  the  Almighty  to  the  patriarch  Job,  in  a  voice  out 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  179 

of  the  whirlwind,  as  rendered  in  the  Revised  Version 
reads : 

Canst  thou  bind  the  cluster  of  the  Pleiades, 
Or  loose  the  bands  of  Orion? 

Amos,  the  herdsman  of  Tekoa,  in  his  Rhapsody  of  the 
Judgment  to  Come,  wrote: 

Seek  Him  that  maketh  the  Pleiades  and  Orion, 

the  Lord  is  his  name. 


To  the  ancients,  the  heliacal  rising  of  the  Pleiades 
— the  rising  before  daybreak — heralded  the  summer 
season,  while  their  acronical  rising — the  rising  at 
sunset — marked  the  beginning  of  winter.  Then,  too, 
this  celebrated  star-group  served  as  a  guide  to  the 
husbandman  as  to  seedtime  and  harvest: 

When  Atlas-born,  the  Pleiad  stars  arise 
Before  the  sun  above  the  dawning  skies, 
'Tis  time  to  reap ;  and  when  they  sink  below 
The  morn-illumined  west,  'tis  time  to  sow. 

Alluding  to  their  showery  nature,  Pope,  in  his  Spring, 
writes : 

For  see,  the  gathering  flocks  to  shelter  tend, 
And  from  the  Pleiads  fruitful  showers  descend. 

Referring  to  their  invisibility  when  the  sun  is  passing 
through  Taurus,  Hesiod  writes: 

There  is  a  time  when  forty  days  they  lie 
And  forty  nights,  concealed  from  human  eye. 


1 8o  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  Pleiades  rise  in  the  north-east,  an  hour  before 
Aldebaran,  and  occupy  seven  hours  and  thirty  minutes 
in  reaching  the  meridian,  when  they  are  rather  more 
than  three-quarters  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon. 
Between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  on  Hallowe'en  they  are 
about  half-way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith. 
During  the  winter  months  they  are  seen  high  up  in  the 
evening  sky,  slowly  advancing  toward  the  western 
horizon.  In  March  they  set  soon  after  nine  o'clock 
and  disappear  from  the  evening  sky  in  April. 

At  the  midnight  culmination  on  the  I7th  of  Novem- 
ber— the  Pleiad  month — memorial  festivals  have  been 
observed  from  remote  antiquity  by  many  peoples  in 
many  lands.  Usually  these  festivals  are  connected 
with  some  legend  of  a  deluge,  or  other  great  calamity 
that  overwhelmed  mankind,  in  the  far  distant  past, 
when  the  Pleiades  were  prominent  in  the  sky.  The 
Feast  of  Lanterns — a  great  national  festival  of  Japan — 
is  supposed  to  have  been  originally  commemorative  of 
some  such  event.  Then,  too,  it  is  thought  by  some,  that 
All  Hallow  Eve,  All  Saints'  Day,  and  All  Souls'  Day, 
of  the  present  calendar,  are  a  survival  of  the  three  days 
memorial  festival  of  the  dead,  almost  universally 
observed  in  early  times  on  the  last  day  of  October  and 
the  first  two  days  in  November,  and  in  some  way  con- 
nected with  the  Pleiades.  It  has  also  been  suggested 
that  the  "tors" — names  given  to  British  hilltops — 
were  connected  with  the  worship  by  the  Druids  of  this 
little  group  of  stars.  As  mentioned  by  Olcott,  Arthur's 
Seat  at  Edinburgh  may  be  regarded  as  a  notable 
example  of  an  old  site  formerly  thus  used. 

Among  the  many  Greek  temples  oriented  to  the 
"Seven  Stars"  was  the  celebrated  Parthenon,  on  the 
Acropolis  at  Athens,  one  of  the  finest  and  most  import- 


IP  I 

The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  18 1 

ant  edifices  ever  erected.  It  was  built  of  Pentelic 
marble,  in  the  Doric  style,  and  was  completed  in  the 
year  438  B.C.  In  the  Euphrates  region,  the  Pleiades 
and  the  Hyades  were  termed  the  Great  Twins  of  the 
ecliptic,  as  Castor  and  Pollux  were  the  Twins  of  the 
zodiac.  The  Arunta,  one  of  the  aboriginal  Australian 
tribes,  believe  that,  together  with  the  sun  and  moon, 
the  Pleiades  were  the  heavenly  ancestors  of  their  race. 
Hesiod  called  them  the  "  Seven  Virgins,"  Virgil  knew 
them  as  the  " Virgin  Stars"  and  Milton  termed  them 
the  "seven  Atlantic  Sisters."  The  Spaniards  called 
them  "the  seven  nanny  goats,"  while  popularly  they 
are  known  as  the  "clucking  hen"  or  the  "hen  and 
chickens." 

Besides  Aldebaran  and  the  two  famous  clusters, 
Taurus  has  several  remarkable  stars.  Beta  Tauri,  or 
El  Nath,  a  pure  white  star  of  the  second  magnitude, 
marks  the  tip  of  the  northern  horn  of  the  Bull.  It  also 
indicates  the  place  where  the  right  foot  of  Auriga  rests 
on  the  Bull's  horn,  being  common  to  the  two  constella- 
tions. Zeta  Tauri,  a  third-magnitude  star,  nine  degrees 
below  El  Nath,  marks  the  tip  of  the  southern  horn. 
The  "golden  horns"  of  the  Bull,  as  Virgil  describes 
them,  are  between  fifteen  and  twenty  degrees  in  length. 
About  one  degree  north-west  of  Zeta,  is  the  celebrated 
Crab  Nebula  (Plate  XIV.),  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
nebular  objects  in  the  heavens.  It  is  an  irregular, 
roundish  mass  of  nebula,  somewhat  comet-like  in 
appearance,  and  was  the  first  nebula  discovered  by 
Messier.  Unfortunately  it  is  visible  only  in  a  very 
powerful  instrument.  The  star  Lambda  is  an  Algol 
variable,  changing  from  the  third  and  a  half  magnitude 
to  the  fourth  and  a  fifth  magnitude  in  a  period  of  three 
days,  twenty-two  hours,  and  fifty-two  minutes. 


182  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Orion 

(The  Giant  Hunter) 

Situated  in  the  most  brilliant  region  in  the  heavens, 
south-east  of  Taurus,  is  the  most  interesting  and  beau- 
tiful constellation  Orion,  glorious  alike  to  the  eye  and 
to  the  telescope.  It  is  the  richest  and  most  impressive 
of  all  the  constellations,  and  next  to  The  Dipper  is  prob- 
ably the  most  widely  known  of  the  stellar  groups.  It 
lies  across  the  celestial  equator,  partly  within  the 
Milky  Way,  wholly  south  of  the  ecliptic,  and  is  visible 
from  all  parts  of  the  world.  In  Brown's  Primitive 
Constellations  it  is  shown,  however,  that  about  four 
thousand  years  ago  it  was  situated,  not  on,  but  entirely 
below,  the  equator.  It  is  one  of  the  largest  of  the 
constellations,  and  is  also  one  of  the  very  few  in  which 
the  natural  grouping  of  the  stars  suggests  the  figure 
that  has,  from  the  earliest  times,  been  connected  with 
it.  It  is  the  one  most  frequently  alluded  to  in  literature, 
is  mentioned  in  the  books  of  Job  and  Amos,  and  also 
in  the  writings  of  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  Virgil. 

The  constellation  is  easily  recognised  by  an  irregular 
quadrilateral,  about  eighteen  degrees  in  its  greatest 
length,  formed  by  four  brilliant  stars,  which  mark  the 
two  shoulders  and  the  two  legs  of  the  gigantic  hunter, 
and  by  three  bright  stars  which  lie  in  an  oblique  line, 
in  the  middle  of  the  quadrilateral,  and  form  the  giant's 
gemmed  Belt.  Manilius  thus  alludes  to  it : 

N 

Near  the  Twins  behold  Orion  rise. 
His  arms  extended  measure  half  the  skies; 
His  stride  no  less.     Onward  with  steady  pace, 
He  treads  the  boundless  realms  of  starry  space; 
On  each  broad  shoulder  a  bright  gem  displayed, 
While  three  obliquely  grace  his  mighty  blade. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  1 83 

And  Longfellow,  in  his  Occultation  of  Orion,  makes  the 
following  reference: 

Begirt  with  many  a  blazing  star, 
Stood  the  great  giant  Algebar, 
Orion,  hunter  of  the  beast ! 
His  sword  hung  gleaming  by  his  side, 
And  on  his  arm,  the  lion's  hide 
Scattered  across  the  midnight  air 
The  golden  radiance  of  its  hair. 

As  Orion  appears  above  the  north-eastern  horizon  he 
is  in  a  reclining  posture,  from  which  he  slowly  rises 
until  he  reaches  the  meridian,  when  he  is  in  the  upright 
position.  As  he  approaches  the  western  horizon  his 
position  becomes  more  and  more  inclined.  Tennyson, 
in  Locksley  Hall,  thus  wrote : 

Many  a  night  from  yonder  ivied  casement,  ere  I  went  to 

rest, 
Did  I  look  on  great  Orion  sloping  slowly  to  the  west. 

This  magnificent  constellation  is  the  chief  ornament 
of  the  frosty  sky  of  winter,  and  is  visible  from  late  in 
October  till  May.  Around  New  Year's  Day  it  appears 
in  the  east  at  sunset,  and  is  upright  in  the  southern  sky 
about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  in  February.  During 
the  next  two  months  it  moves  somewhat  rapidly  down 
the  western  sky,  and  disappears  from  evening  view 
early  in  May.  All  told,  Orion  contains  two  stars  of 
the  first  magnitude,  four  of  the  second,  four  of  the 
third,  three  of  the  fourth,  and  over  twenty  of  the  fifth. 
Lying  in  a  rich  region  of  the  heavens,  it  possesses  a 
great  number  of  stars  of  the  sixth  magnitude.  It 
abounds  in  nebulous  stars,  and  is  wonderfully  rich  in 
telescopic  objects.  The  spectra  of  its  brighter  stars, 


1 84  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

with  the  exception  of  Betelgeux,  indicate  that  they  are 
in  the  earlier  stages  of  stellar  development. 

The  figure  of  Orion  as  represented  in  classical  atlases 
of  the  heavens,  is  that  of  a  colossal  giant  trampling  on 
a  timid  hare,  and  facing  in  heroic  attitude  the  mighty 
Bull,  that,  with  glaring  eye,  is  rushing  down  upon  him 
with  his  long,  golden  horns,  (Frontispiece).  Over 
his  left  arm  hangs  a  red  lion's  hide,  that  serves  as  a 
shield,  and  which  he  is  shaking  at  the  bull.  With  his 
uplifted  right  hand  he  swings  a  massive  club,  with 
which  he  is  about  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  forehead  of  the 
infuriated  animal.  From  his  dazzling  belt  or  girdle, 
to  which  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel, 
refers,  as  "Orion's  studded  belt,"  dangles  his  famous 
sword  or  hunting  knife.  Bryant,  in  The  Constellations, 
writes : 

I  have  seen 

The  great  Orion,  with  his  jewelled  belt, 
That  large  limbed  warrior  of  the  skies,  go  down 
Into  the  gloom. 

\ 

According  to  Grecian  legend,  Orion  was  the  son  of 
Neptune  and  Euryale,  and  became  the  greatest  hunter 
in  the  world.  By  Homer  he  was  described  as  the 
"tallest  and  most  beautiful  man,"  and  was  so  tall  that 
he  could  wade  the  sea.  By  some  he  was  identified  with 
the  great  Nimrod,  "the  mighty  hunter  before  the 
Lord."  He  profanely  boasted  that  he  was  able  to 
conquer  any  animal  the  earth  could  produce.  Where- 
upon a  gigantic  scorpion  rose  out  of  the  ground,  at  the 
command  of  Juno,  and  bit  his  foot,  causing  his  death. 
Subsequently,  at  the  request  of  Diana,  he  was  placed 
among  the  stars,  directly  opposite  the  Scorpion,  so 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  185 

that  he  might  never  again  be  molested  by  the  offensive 
reptile. 

And  so  'tis  said  that,  when  the  Scorpion  comes, 
Orion  flies  to  utmost  end  of  earth. 

ARATUS. 

Another  legend  relates  that  the  giant  Hunter  was 
the  companion  of  the  Huntress  Diana,  who,  notwith- 
standing her  heart  was  supposed  to  be  Cupid-proof, 
fell  in  love  with  him  and  would  have  married  him,  had 
not  her  jealous  twin-brother  Apollo  opposed  their 
union.  The  indignant  brother  persuaded  her  one  day 
to  try  her  skill  at  archery,  by  shooting  at  a  certain 
object  in  the  sea.  She  aimed  a  shaft  and  hit  the  shin- 
ing mark,  which  proved  to  be  the  head  of  Orion,  who, 
it  is  said,  was  amusing  himself  by  wading  at  some 
distance  from  shore.  Her  arrow  having  killed  him, 
Diana  had  him  placed  among  the  stars,  where  he  shines 
to  this  day  as  the  most  gorgeous  stellar  figure  in  the 
entire  sky. 

Still  another  story  asserts  that  Orion  was  the  lover 
of  Merope,  daughter  of  CEnopion,  King  of  Chios,  by 
the  nymph  Helice.  Having  been  of  great  service  to 
the  king,  in  clearing  his  country  of  wild  beasts,  he  sued 
for  Merope' s  hand  in  marriage.  On  being  refused,  he 
attempted  to  take  her  by  force.  QEnopion,  enraged  at 
this  and  other  improper  conduct,  made  him  drunk,  and, 
having  put  out  his  eyes,  left  him  alone  on  the  seashore. 
The  blinded  hero,  following  the  sound  of  a  Cy clop's 
hammer,  went  to  Lemnos,  and  made  his  way  to  Vulcan's 
forge,  where  he  besought  assistance.  Vulcan,  taking 
pity  on  him,  instructed  Cedalion  to  be  his  guide,  and 
Orion,  placing  him  on  his  shoulders,  proceeded  eastward 
to  the  top  of  a  mountain,  where,  facing  the  rising  sun, 


186  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  healing  beams  restored  his  sight.  Longfellow 
thus  alludes  to  this  episode : 

but  he 

Reeled  as  of  yore  beside  the  sea, 
When  blinded  by  CEnopion 
He  sought  the  blacksmith  at  his  forge, 
And  climbing  up  the  narrow  gorge, 
Fixed  his  blank  eyes  upon  the  sun. 

On  account  of  its  setting  in  the  late  autumn,  Orion 
has  always  been  regarded  as  a  somewhat  stormy  con- 
stellation. Milton,  in  Paradise  Lost,  thus  alludes  to  its 
boisterous  character: 

When  with  fierce  winds  Orion  armed 
Hath  vexed  the  Red  Sea  coast. 

The  loss  of  the  Roman  fleet  in  the  first  Punic  War  was 
attributed  by  Polybius  to  its  having  sailed  between  the 
risings  of  Orion  and  Sirius.  And  Hesiod  carefully 
warned  all  seafarers  to  beware  the  dangers  of  the  sea, 
when  the  Pleiades  flying  from  Orion  are  lost  in 
the  waves. 

The  two  chief  stars  of  the  constellation  are  Betelgeux 
and  Rigel,  both  first-magnitude  stars,  although  Rigel 
is  generally  the  brighter  star.  Betelgeux,  or  Alpha 
Orionis,  which  is  the  first  of  these  to  appear  above  the 
horizon,  rises  in  the  north-eastern  sky  about  an  hour 
and  a  half  after  Aldebaran.  It  marks  the  right 
shoulder  of  Orion,  and  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable, 
irregularly  variable,  stars  in  the  heavens.  It  is  a 
spectroscopic  binary,  and  its  variability  was  detected 
by  Sir  John  Herschel  in  1836.  In  1852  and  1894  ano^ 
again  in  1908  it  outshone  Rigel.  It  is  an  orange-red 
star,  the  tone  seeming  to  deepen  as  the  star  becomes 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  187 

more  faint,  which  would  indicate  that  it  may  be  enter- 
ing upon  the  earlier  stages  of  extinction.  It  is  one 
hundred  and  nine  light  years  distant,  has  a  proper  or 
cross  motion  of  about  three  miles  a  second,  and  is 
receding  from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  ten  and 
a  half  miles  a  second.  It  is  supposed  to  give  out  nearly 
five  hundred  times  as  much  light  as  the  sun.  It  occu- 
pies six  hours  and  thirty-four  minutes  in  reaching  the 
meridian,  when  it  is  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  way  up 
from  the  horizon.  It  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  January 
29th.  In  astrology,  Betelgeux  denoted  military  or 
civic  honours,  and  is  often  called  the  "  Martial  Star." 

Rigel,  or  Beta  Orionis,  the  brightest  star  in  the  con- 
stellation, lies  some  sixteen  degrees  below  Betelgeux, 
and  rises  about  fifteen  minutes  after  it.  It  is  a  beau- 
tiful, white,  first-magnitude  star,  with  a  tinge  of  blue 
and  marks  the  giant's  left  foot,  which  is  raised  as  if 
climbing  a  steep  ascent.  It  is  young  in  the  order  of 
evolution,  and  ranks  with  Arcturus  in  point  of  bril- 
liancy. It  is  a  most  famous  double  star,  separable  with 
a  two  and  a  half -inch  telescope.  The  companion  star 
to  youthful  Rigel  is  of  the  eighth  magnitude,  and  of  a 
bright  sapphire-blue  colour.  Rigel  rises  in  the  south- 
east, and  occupies  five  hours  and  thirty- three  minutes 
in  reaching  the  meridian,  when  it  is  within  four  degrees 
of  being  half-way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith. 
It  passes  the  meridian  one  minute  after  Capella,  and 
sets  nearly  two  hours  earlier  than  Betelgeux.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  remote  of  the  brighter  stars,  being  about 
four  hundred  and  fifty  light  years  distant.  It  is  re- 
ceding from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  miles 
a  second.  Its  light-giving  power  is  estimated  as  ten 
thousand  times  that  of  the  sun.  With  Aldebaran  and 
Betelgeux,  it  forms  a  large  triangle,  enclosing  Bellatrix. 


188  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Bellatrix,  or  Gamma  Orionis,  marks  the  left  shoulder 
of  the  giant,  and  is  a  second-magnitude  star,  of  a  pale 
yellow  colour.  It  is  the  first  of  the  principal  stars  to 
appear  above  the  eastern  horizon,  being  followed 
closely  by  Betelgeux.  It  is  sometimes  called  the 
"Amazon  Star,"  or  the  "Female  Warrior."  It  is 
receding  from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  five 
miles  a  second.  Astrologically  considered,  Bellatrix  is 
connected  with  the  fortune  of  women,  those  born 
under  its  influence  being  lucky  and  fluent. 

Saiph,  or  Kappa  Orionis,  is  a  third-magnitude  star, 
situated  in  the  right  knee,  eight  and  a  half  degrees 
east  of  Rigel.  Along  with  Betelgeux,  Rigel,  and  Bella- 
trix, it  forms  a  large,  irregular  parallelogram  that 
serves  to  outline  the  constellation. 

The  three  dazzling  second-magnitude  stars  in  the 
Belt,  which  is  about  three  degrees  in  length,  lie  midway 
between  Betelgeux  and  Rigel.  They  are  situated  at 
equal  distance  from  each  other,  make  a  slanting  line 
across  the  sky,  and  are  supposed  to  be  the  stars  referred 
to  by  Job  as  the  "bands  of  Orion."  They  are  named 
Delta  or  Mintaka,  Epsilon  or  Alnilam,  and  Zeta  or 
Alnitak.  Tennyson  in  The  Princess,  Part  Fifth,  refers 
to  them  as, 

Those  three  stars  of  the  airy  Giant's  zone, 
That  glitter  burnish'd  by  the  frosty  dark. 

The  three  stars  in  the  stately  Belt  stand  in  a  right  line 
and  point  up  to  the  red  Aldebaran  and  the  Pleiades 
and  down  to  the  bright  Sirius.  The  uppermost  star, 
Mintaka,  lies  exactly  on  the  celestial  equator,  which 
passes  about  half  way  between  Rigel  and  Betelgeux. 
The  three  stars  are  sometimes  referred  to,  as  the 
"Rake,"  "Jacob's  Rod,"  the  "Three  Kings,"  and  the 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  189 

golden  '  Yard."  In  mythology  they  represent  the 
arrow,  with  which  Diana  killed  Orion. 

Mintaka,  or  Delta,  is  a  wide  double,  the  principal 
star  being  white  in  colour  and  of  the  second  magnitude, 
while  the  companion  star  is  of  the  seventh  magnitude 
and  of  a  violet  hue.  Alnilam,  or  Epsilon,  the  middle 
star  in  the  belt,  is  a  white  star  of  the  second  magnitude, 
with  a  distant  blue  companion.  It  is  said  to  be  a  very 
hot  star,  its  temperature  having  been  estimated  at 
about  forty-five  thousand  degrees  Fahrenheit.  Alnitak, 
or  Zeta,  the  lowest  star  in  the  belt,  is  a  remarkable 
triple.  The  principal  star  is  of  the  second  magnitude, 
and  shines  with  a  yellowish- white  light.  The  fifth- 
magnitude  companion  is  of  a  purple  colour,  while  the 
tenth-magnitude  companion  is  grey. 

A  short,  curved  row  of  stars,  depending  from  the 
belt,  and  running  obliquely  towards  Saiph,  marks  that 
famous,  ghostly  weapon,  the  so-called  Sword  of  Orion. 
This  row  of  stars  is  sometimes  called  the  "  Ell,"  because 
it  is  once  and  a  quarter  the  length  of  the  Yard,  or  belt. 
The  lowermost  star  of  the  row  is  the  third-magnitude 
triple  star  Iota.  The  middle  star,  Theta,  is  a  sextuple 
star,  and  is  of  course  notable,  as  four  of  its  components, 
which  can  be  seen  in  a  two  and  a  half-inch  telescope, 
form  an  irregular  quadrilateral  known  as  the  "  Orion 
trapezium,"  and  the  star  itself  is  enveloped  in  the  Great 
Orion  Nebula.  Large  instruments  show  in  addition 
several  fainter  stars  in  the  trapezium  group. 

In  Tennyson's  Merlin  and  Vivien,  Merlin  thus 
alludes  to  Theta: 

A  single  misty  star, 
Which  is  the  second  in  a  line  of  stars 
That  seem  a  sword  beneath  a  belt  of  three, 


190  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

I  never  gazed  upon  it  but  I  dreamt 

Of  some  vast  charm  concluded  in  that  star 

To  make  fame  nothing. 

Situated  a  short  distance  below  Mintaka,  at  a  right  angle 
with  the  line  of  the  belt,  is  Eta,  a  third-magnitude  star, 
which  marks  the  handle  of  the  sword.  Immediately 
south  of  Alnitak,  the  lowermost  star  of  the  belt,  is  the 
fine  fourth-magnitude  star,  Sigma  Orionis.  It  is  a 
most  remarkable  multiple  star,  a  quintuple  and  a 
coloured  variable,  and  altogether  a  charming  object. 

The  head  of  the  mighty  hunter  is  marked  by  a  small 
triangle  of  faint  stars,  the  brightest  of  which  is  Lambda,  or 
Meissa,  a  triple  star  of  a  light  yellow  colour,  and  of  about 
the  third-and-a-half  magnitude.  The  uplifted  club,  which 
stretches  across  the  Milky  Way  almost  to  the  feet  of  the 
Twins  and  the  southern  horn  of  the  Bull,  is  marked  by 
several  fifth-  and  sixth-magnitude  stars.  Whilst,  run- 
ning upwards  between  Bellatrix  and  Aldebaran  is  a  curved 
line  of  little  stars,  concave  towards  the  giant's  head,  re- 
presenting the  lion's  hide  that  Orion  carries  on  his  left 
arm  as  a  shield,  and  which,  as  it  rises  in  the  east,  affords 
the  first  glimpse  of  the  approaching  constellation. 

On  a  clear  night,  when  there  is  little  or  no  moonlight, 
Theta,  the  middle  star  in  the  sword  of  Orion,  is  seen 
to  be  somewhat  hazy  to  the  unaided  eye.  This  haziness 
is  due  to  the  presence  of  a  great  misty  cloud  of  light 
known  as  the  Great  Nebula  of  Orion  (Neb.  1179),  the 
largest  nebula  known  outside  of  the  Milky  Way,  and 
the  most  marvellous  object  of  its  kind  in  the  northern 
heavens.  It  has  been  sometimes  called  the  "  Fish- 
mouth  nebula,"  because  when  viewed  through  a  tele- 
scope, it  is  in  shape  something  like  a  fish-mouth 
(Plate  XVIII.).  According  to  Barnard  it  "vaguely 


Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory 

PLATE  XVIII.     The  Great  Nebula  in  Orion 

(The  side  to  the  reader's  right  should  be  held  downward) 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  191 

resembles  a  ghostly  bat  flitting  through  the  night  of 
space."  It  is  one  of  the  two  or  three  nebulae  that  are 
bright  enough  to  be  visible  to  the  naked  eye.  It  can  be 
plainly  seen  with  an  opera-glass,  and  a  prism  binocu- 
lar shows  it  well.  In  a  two-inch  telescope  it  is  seen 
to  greater  advantage,  and  in  still  larger  instruments  is 
a  most  wonderful  object.  It  was  discovered  by  Cysat 
of  Lucerne,  in  1618,  but  was  first  really  described  and 
sketched  by  Huyghens  in  1656.  It  is  a  "green" 
nebula,  and  yields  a  bright  line  spectrum,  characteristics 
of  the  lighter  gases  such  as  hydrogen  and  helium.  It 
also  displays  the  characteristic  green  ray,  which  marks 
the  unknown  element  named  "nebulium." 

It  is  a  widely  diffused  and  irregular  nebula  composed 
largely  of  glowing  gases,  but  having,  as  shown  by  Wolf, 
outlying  spiral  branches.  It  is  part  of  a  vast  nebulous 
system  enveloping  nearly  the  entire  constellation,  cover- 
ing an  area  thousands  of  times  larger  than  Neptune's 
huge  orbit.  The  densest  part  of  the  nebula — that 
immediately  above  the  " trapezium" — presents  a  some- 
what curdled  appearance,  indicative  of  the  formation 
of  various  centres  of  condensation,  of  which  the  final 
result  will  be  a  group  of  stars.  There  are,  as  Serviss 
says,  in  his  eloquent  way  :  "stars  apparently  com- 
pleted, shining  like  gems  just  dropped  from  the  hand 
of  the  polisher,  and  around  them  are  masses,  eddies, 
currents,  and  swirls  of  nebulous  matter  yet  to  be 
condensed,  compacted  and  constructed,  into  suns." 
In  the  language  of  Tennyson  here  are 

Regions  of  lucid  matter  taking  form, 

Brushes  of  fire,  hazy  gleams, 

Clusters  and  beds  of  worlds,  and  bee-like  swarms 

Of  suns  and  starry  streams. 


192  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

According  to  W.  H.  Pickering  this  magnificent 
nebula  is  not  less  than  one  thousand  light  years  distant. 
Hence  the  observer  sees  it,  not  as  it  is  now,  but  as  it  was 
more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the  Norman 
Conquest.  It  is  receding  from  the  solar  system  at  the 
rate  of  about  eleven  miles  a  second. 


CHAPTER  VI 

X 

THE  NIGHT-SKY  OF  WINTER — (Continued) 

Auriga 

(The  Charioteer) 

DIRECTLY  east  of  Perseus,  between  Taurus  and  the 
Lynx,  is  Auriga,  the  Charioteer  or  the  Waggoner.  It  is 
a  very  ancient  and  widely  extended  constellation,  and 
is  largely  involved  in  the  Milky  Way.  It  is  an  irregular, 
five-sided  figure,  somewhat  resembling  a  shield,  and 
measures  some  forty  degrees  from  east  to  west,  and 
about  thirty  degrees  from  north  to  south.  It  is  easily 
recognised,  as  its  chief  feature  is  a  brilliant,  first- 
magnitude  star  of  pearly  lustre,  with  no  other  star  in 
its  neighbourhood  comparable  to  it  in  brightness. 
Then  too,  an  imaginary  line  drawn  from  the  Dragon's 
Head  across  the  pole  star  leads  to  it.  And  again,  a 
line  connecting  Dubhe,  the  upper  front  star  of  The 
Dipper,  with  its  outlying  stars,  will,  if  prolonged,  pass 
through  the  constellation. 

It  has  been  represented  on  celestial  maps  by  the 
figure  of  a  man  seated  on  the  Milky  Way,  and  resting 
one  foot  upon  the  right  horn  of  the  Bull,  with  a  goat 
on  his  shoulder,  her  two  kids  in  his  left  hand,  and  a 
long  whip  in  his  right.  Capella,  the  Goat-star,  shines 
in  the  heart  of  the  imaginary  goat,  while  near-by  is  a 
13  193 


194  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

tiny,  sharp-pointed  triangle,  formed  by  three  fourth- 
magnitude  stars  called  the  Kids. 

Auriga  is  fabled  by  the  Greeks  as  representing  Erech- 
thonius,  son  of  Vulcan  and  Atthis,  the  daughter  of 
Cranaus,  King  of  Attica,  who  was  deformed,  and  was 
reared  by  Minerva  without  the  knowledge  of  the  other 
gods.  When  he  had  grown  up,  he  expelled  Amphicty on, 
and  became  the  fourth  king  of  Athens,  and  is  said  to 
have  invented  the  four-horse  chariot,  for  which  he  was 
rewarded  by  Jupiter  with  a  place  in  the  sky.  Mani- 
lius  thus  refers  to  the  constellation : 

Close  by  the  kneeling  Bull  behold 

The  Charioteer,  who  gained  by  skill  of  old 

His  name  and  heaven,  as  first  his  steeds  he  drove 

With  flying  wheels,  seen  and  installed  by  Jove. 

The  leading  star  of  the  constellation,  Capella,  or 
Alpha  Aurigae,  lies  near  the  northern  edge  of  the  Milky 
Way,  about  half-way  between  Bellatrix  and  the  pole 
star.  It  is  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  goat,  or  rather 
near  the  left  or  western  shoulder  of  the  charioteer,  and 
is  one  of  the  brightest  stars  in  the  northern  skies,  and  is 
nearer  the  pole  than  any  other  first-  or  zero-magnitude 
star.  It  is  a  brilliant,  creamy- white  star,  brighter  than 
the  first  magnitude,  and  belongs  to  the  solar  type,  be- 
ing at  about  the  same  stage  of  development  as  the  sun. 

It  is  a  hot  and  rarefied  body  of  immense  magnitude, 
about  forty  times  rarer  than  the  sun,  and  gives  out 
about  1 20  times  more  light.  According  to  J.  E.  Gore, 
it  is  estimated  to  be  about  fourteen  million  miles  in 
diameter. 

It  is  a  spectroscopic  binary,  one  of  those  stars  which 
the  spectroscope  shows  to  be  attended  by  an  invisible 
companion  of  enormous  mass.  Its  period  of  revolution 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  195 

is  104  days,  the  principal  and  companion  stars  being  of 
nearly  equal  size.  It  is  forty-nine  and  a  half  light  years 
distant,  has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  nineteen-and-a- 
half  miles  a  second,  and  is  receding  from  the  solar  sys- 
tem at  the  rate  of  eighteen-and-a-half  miles  a  second. 

Capella  rises  almost  exactly  in  the  north-east,  and 
occupies  ten  hours  and  seventeen  minutes  in  reaching 
the  meridian,  which  it  passes  at  some  distance  north 
of  the  zenith.  During  August  evenings  it  rises  about 
ten  o'clock,  and  at  sunset  about  the  middle  of  October. 
It  culminates  at  9  P.M.  on  January  I9th.  It  is  above 
the  horizon  over  twenty  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four, 
rising  again  in  three  hours  and  twenty-six  minutes 
after  it  sets.  It  presides  over  the  stars  of  winter,  and 
is  visible  every  night  in  the  year  in  some  part  of  its 
course.  July  is  the  only  month  when  it  is  not  visible 
at  some  time  before  midnight. 

Capella  was  termed  by  the  Arabs  the  "Guardian 
of  the  Pleiades,"  and  by  the  English  poets  it  was  called 
the  "Shepherd's  Star."  By  ancient  mariners  the 
rainy  Goat-star  and  the  Kids  were  accredited  with 
exerting  a  direful  influence.  Alluding  to  their  stormy 
nature,  Aratus  wrote: 

Capella's  course  admiring  landsmen  trace, 
But  sailors  hate  her  inconspicuous  face. 

In  like  vein  the  celebrated  Alexandrine  poet,  Callima- 
chus,  in  the,  third  century  B.C.,  wrote  in  an  epigram  of 
the  Anthologia: 

Tempt  not  the  winds,  forewarned  of  dangers  nigh, 
When  the  Kids  glitter  in  the  western  sky. 

With  astrologers  Capella  portended  civic  and  military 
honours  and  wealth. 


196  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Menkalina,  or  Beta  Aurigae,  the  second  star  in  the 
constellation,  is  a  bluish-white  star  of  the  second  magni- 
tude, on  the  right  shoulder  of  the  charioteer,  about  ten 
degrees  east  of  Capella.  It  passes  the  meridian  some 
six  degrees  from  the  zenith,  about  forty-three  minutes 
after  the  latter  star.  Like  Capella,  it  is  a  spectroscopic 
binary,  its  component  stars  being  about  seven-and-a- 
half  million  miles  apart.  E.  C.  Pickering,  in  1869, 
calculated  the  period  of  revolution  to  be  four  days, 
and  the  relative  velocity  as  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  a  second.  It  has  resolved  itself  on  further 
observation  by  means  of  the  spectroscope  into  a 
quaternary  system.  It  was  one  of  the  first  spectro- 
scopic binaries  to  be  discovered,  and  is  receding  from 
the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  seventeen  miles  a  second. 

El  Nath — Gamma  Aurigae  or  Beta  Tauri — is  a 
white,  second-magnitude  star,  common  to  the  con- 
stellations Auriga  and  Taurus,  and  marks  the  place 
where  the  right  foot  of  the  charioteer  rests  upon  the 
tip  of  the  right  horn  of  the  Bull.  Aratus  thus  refers 
to  it: 

The  tip  of  the  left  horn  and  the  right  foot 
Of  the  Charioteer,  one  star  embraces. 

Iota,  a  third-magnitude  star,  about  ten  degrees  north- 
west of  El  Nath,  is  in  the  left  foot.  Three  fourth- 
magnitude  stars,  Epsilon,  Zeta,  and  Eta,  which  form 
a  small  isosceles  triangle  a  short  distance  below  and  to 
the  west  of  Capella,  represent  the  Kids.  Theta,  a 
third-magnitude  star,  about  nine  degrees  south  of 
Menkalina,  marks  the  charioteer's  right  hand,  resting 
upon  his  right  knee  and  holding  a  long  whip  represented 
by  several  fifth-  and  sixth-magnitude  stars.  Delta, 
a  fourth-magnitude  star,  about  nine  degrees  north  of 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  197 

the  shoulder  stars,  together  with  Xi,  a  fifth-magnitude 
star,  indicates  the  charioteer's  head.  Along  with 
Capella  and  Menkalina,  it  forms  an  approach  to  an 
equilateral  triangle. 

The  now  historic  Nova — Nova  Aurigae — discovered 
on  January  23,  1892,  by  Dr.  T.  D.  Anderson  of  Edin- 
burgh, a  famous  observer  of  variable  stars,  appeared 
in  proximity  to  the  southern  border  of  Auriga,  about 
two  degrees  north-east  of  El  Nath.  Its  image  was 
afterwards  found  on  photographic  plates  taken  in 
December  at  Harvard  College  Observatory.  At  its 
greatest  brightness,  it  was  of  about  the  fourth  magni- 
tude. In  three  months  it  had  dwindled  to  the  twelfth 
magnitude,  but  brightened  during  August  to  the  ninth 
magnitude,  after  which  it  gradually  faded  away. 

Lynx 

(The  Lynx) 

Lying  above  Gemini,  and  between  the  head  of  Ursa 
Major  and  that  of  Auriga,  is  the  rather  extensive  but 
inconspicuous  constellation  known  as  the  Lynx  or  the 
Tiger.  It  is  one  of  Hevelius's  constellations,  and  dates 
only  from  the  seventeenth  century.  To  the  naked  eye 
it  offers  no  attraction,  having  only  one  star  brighter 
than  the  fourth  magnitude.  It  has  no  legendary  or 
mythological  history,  but  is  interesting  on  account  of 
the  number  and  beauty  of  its  double  and  triple  stars. 
The  star  12  Lyncis,  in  the  eye  of  the  animal,  is  a  fine 
triple,  the  principal  star  being  of  the  fifth  magnitude, 
and  the  companion  stars  of  the  sixth  and  seventh. 

Eridanus 

(The  Sky-River) 

South  of  Taurus,  between  Orion  and  Cetus,  is  the 
great  sky -river,  Eridanus,  the  River  Po.  It  is  a  large, 


198  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

though  inconspicuous  constellation,  containing  very 
few  prominent  stars  visible  in  northern  latitudes.  It 
is  represented  as  a  winding  river,  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty  degrees  in  length,  beginning  near  Rigel  and 
meandering  westward  and  southward  toward  Cetus 
and  Fornax,  finally  becoming  lost  below  the  southern 
horizon.  It  terminates  far  down  in  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, near  the  brilliant  first-magnitude  star  Achernar, 
or  Alpha  Eridani,  one  of  the  brightest  stars  in  the  sky, 
but  invisible  from  latitudes  north  of  Savannah,  its 
south  declination  being  57°  42'. 

Eridanus  covers  a  large  and  very  irregular  space  in 
the  heavens,  and  can  be  traced  without  difficulty,  as 
not  only  are  few  stars  near  it  but  many  of  its  stars  are 
arranged  in  pairs.  For  convenience  of  reference,  it  has 
been  divided  into  a  northern  and  a  southern  stream. 
That  part  of  it  which  lies  between  Orion  and  Cetus, 
including  the  great  bend  about  the  Whale's  paws,  is 
known  as  the  northern  stream,  while  the  remainder 
of  it  is  termed  the  southern  stream.  This  imaginary 
river  was  called  by  Virgil  the  "King  of  Rivers," 
and  has  been  indifferently  referred  to  as  the  "River 
Jordan,"  the  "River  Euphrates,"  and  the  "River 
Nile." 

According  to  fable  it  was  an  ancient  river  of  Italy — 
now  the  Po — and  was  made  a  constellation  because  it 
was  the  river  into  which  the  intrepid  Phaethon  fell, 
when  he  was  struck  dead  with  a  flash  of  lightning  by 
Jupiter,  after  his  disastrous  attempt  to  drive  for  a  day 
the  chariot  of  the  sun,  and  in  which  adventure  he  came 
near  setting  the  world  on  fire.  It  is  related  that  the 
great  heat  produced  on  the  occasion  of  the  sun's  de- 
parting out  of  his  usual  course,  when  the  fiery  steeds 
left  the  beaten  track,  dried  up  the  blood  of  the  Ethio- 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  199 

pians  and  turned  their  skins  black.  Aratus  thus  refers 
to  the  famous  river: 

The  scorched  waters  of  Eridanus'  tear-swollen  flood 
Welling  beneath  the  left  foot  of  Orion. 

The  constellation  has  no  stars,  visible  in  northern 
latitudes,  larger  than  the  yellowish,  second-and-a-half 
magnitude  star  Gamma,  or  Zaurak.  Gamma  Eridani 
is  situated  in  the  northern  stream,  and  is  a  good  double, 
with  a  tenth-magnitude  companion  of  a  pale-grey 
colour.  The  star  Cursa,  or  Beta  Eridani,  three  degrees 
north-west  of  Rigel,  is  a  topaz-yellow  star  of  about  the 
third  magnitude  with  a  distant  telescopic  companion 
star  of  the  twelfth  magnitude,  and  of  a  pale-blue  colour. 

Lepus 
(The  Hare) 

Directly  below  Orion  and  west  of  the  Greater  Dog, 
is  the  small  and  inconspicuous  constellation  Lepus,  the 
Hare.  Aratus  thus  describes  its  place: 

""   Below  Orion's  feet  the  Hare 
Is  chased  eternally ;  behind  him 
Sinus  ever  speeds  as  in  pursuit. 

The  constellation  contains  little  of  interest  for  the 
ordinary  observer,  but  may  be  readily  distinguished 
by  means  of  four  stars,  two  of  which  are  of  the  third 
magnitude  and  two  of  the  fourth,  arranged  in  the  form 
of  an  irregular  square  or  trapezium.  Alpha  and  Beta, 
about  three  degrees  apart,  are  of  the  third  magnitude, 
and  form  the  north-west  end  of  the  trapezium,  while 
Gamma  and  Delta,  about  two  and  a  half  degrees  apart, 
are  of  the  fourth  magnitude,  and  form  the  south-east  end. 


200  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Alpha  Leporis,  or  Arneb,  the  upper  right-hand  star 
of  the  trapezium,  is  the  brightest  of  the  four,  and  is 
near  the  centre  of  the  asterism.  It  is  a  double  star,  of 
a  pale-yellow  colour,  with  a  ninth-magnitude  star  of  a 
grey  colour.  It  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  January  24th. 
Beta  Leporis,  or  Nihal,  is  a  rather  difficult  triple  star 
except  in  the  larger  instruments,  the  two  smaller  com- 
ponents being  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  magnitudes. 
The  star  Gamma  is  a  wide  double,  separable  even  by  a 
good  opera-glass.  The  principal  star  is  yellow  and  of 
the  fourth  magnitude,  while  the  companion  star  is  of 
the  sixth-and-a-half  magnitude,  and  of  a  pale-green 
colour.  About  four  degrees  south  of  Rigel  are  four 
small  stars  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  magnitudes,  which 
indicate  the  ears  of  the  Hare.  Eta,  a  fourth-magnitude 
star,  is  in  the  tail,  while  Zeta,  also  a  fourth-magnitude 
star,  is  situated  in  the  back,  about  five  degrees  south 
of  Saiph. 

The  most  remarkable  object  in  the  constellation  is 
the  crimson  star  R  Leporis,  which  can  be  seen  with  an 
opera-glass.  It  is  situated  near  the  western  border 
of  the  constellation,  about  three  degrees  west  of  Mu, 
a  fourth-magnitude  star  in  the  eye  of  the  imaginary 
hare.  It  was  discovered  by  Hind  in  1845,  and  is 
frequently  referred  to  as  ''Hind's  Crimson  Star."  It 
is  a  notable  variable,  with  a  period  of  436  days,  and 
ranges  in  brilliancy  from  the  sixth  to  the  ninth  and  a  half 
magnitude.  When  at  its  brightest  it  is  of  a  coppery-red 
colour,  but  when  faintest  it  is  of  a  deep  blood-red. 

Columba 

(Noah's  Dove) 

Under  Lepus,  and  south-west  of  the  Greater  Dog,  is 
the  small  constellation  of  Columba,  the  Dove.  The 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  201 

figure  heads  to  the  south-east,  and  is  supposed  to  re- 
present the  dove  that  Noah  sent  out  from  the  ark. 
Besides  its  chief  star,  Alpha  Columbas,  or  Phaet,  which 
is  of  about  the  second  and  a  half  magnitude,  it  contains 
one  star,  Beta,  of  the  third  magnitude,  and  two,  Epsilon 
and  Gamma,  of  the  fourth,  as  also  a  number  of  smaller 
stars.  Phaet  is  easily  identified,  as  a  line  connecting 
Procyon  and  Sirius  will,  if  produced  twenty- three  de- 
grees, point  to  it.  According  to  Lockyer,  the  Egyptian 
temples  at  Edfu  and  Philae,  along  with  several  others, 
were  oriented  to  Phaet. 

Phaet  culminates  at  9  P.M.,  January  26th. 

Canis  Major 
(The  Greater  Dog) 

Canis  Major,  the  Greater  Dog,  lies  south-east  of 
Orion,  on  the  western  border  of  the  Milky  Way,  and 
is  remarkable  because  it  contains  Sirius,  the  blazing 
Dog  Star,  the  brightest  star  in  all  the  sky.  It  is  not 
a  large  constellation,  but  has,  in  addition  to  its  magnifi- 
cent leader,  three  stars  of  the  second  magnitude,  three 
of  the  third,  and  a  number  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth 
magnitudes. 

According  to  Greek  fable,  Canis  Major  was  one  of 
the  hounds  of  Orion,  which  accompanied  the  great 
hunter  when  he  was  translated  to  the  sky.  Another 
legend  asserts  that  it  represents  the  dog  given  by 
Aurora  to  Cephalus,  which  surpassed  all  rivals  in 
fleetness.  To  the  Egyptians  it  was  the  representative 
of  their  deity  Anubis,  which  had  the  figure  of  a  man 
with  the  head  of  a  dog.  They  regarded  it,  when  ap- 
pearing in  the  east  just  before  sunrise,  as  the  herald  of 
the  annual  inundation  of  the  Nile.  Anubis  was  the 
guard  and  companion  of  Isis,  wife  of  Osiris,  the  god  of 


202  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  Nile,  and  in  Egyptian  temples  was  represented  as 
the  guard  of  other  gods. 

On  celestial  maps  the  Dog  is  generally  figured  as 
standing  on  his  hind  feet,  facing  his  master  Orion,  with, 
as  Young  intimates,  an  eye  out  for  the  Hare,  which 
cowers  beneath  the  hunter's  feet. 

The  chief  star  of  the  constellation  is  the  dazzling 
Sirius,  a  star  of  surpassing  brilliance,  Sirius  the  Superb. 

Hail,  Mighty  Sirius,  monarch  of  the  Suns! 

LYDIA  H.  SIGOURNEY,  The  Stars. 

This  famous  star  is  situated  about  sixteen-and-a-half 
degrees  south  of  the  celestial  equator,  nearly  in  line 
with  the  three  stars  in  the  belt  of  Orion.  It  enters  the 
evening  sky  just  as  the  bright  summer  star  Vega  is 
leaving  it,  and  is  visible  from  every  habitable  quarter 
of  the  globe.  It  blazes  in  the  wide-stretched  jaws  of 
the  imaginary  dog,  and  was  called  by  the  ancients  the 
Dog  Star,  on  account  of  its  association  with  the  Dies 
canicularis,  or  Dog  Day — the  "dog  days"  being  reck- 
oned from  its  heliacal  rising.  Popularly,  the  "dog 
days"  are  the  sultry,  close  part  of  the  summer,  a  period 
in  July  and  August,  when  canine  madness  is  supposed 
to  be  prevalent. 

Sirius  is  alluded  to  as  the  Dog  Star  in  Homer's 
Iliad,  Book  XXII.  (Lord  Derby 'str.),  thus: 

Th'  autumnal  star,  whose  brilliant  ray 
Shines  eminent  amid  the  depth  of  night, 
Whom  men  the  dog-star  of  Orion  call. 

Serviss  mentions  that  from  its  proper  or  cross  motion 
in  the  heavens,  it  has  been  calculated  that,  six  hundred 
centuries  ago,  Sirius  was  on  the  eastern  border  of  the 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  203 

Milky  Way.  It  moves,  during  a  century,  through  a 
space  on  the  celestial  sphere  equivalent  to  about  one- 
fourteenth  the  apparent  diameter  of  the  moon.  Ac- 
cording to  a  fable  related  by  the  Persian  astronomer, 
Al  Sufi,  the  stars,  Sirius  and  Procyon,  were  the  sisters 
of  Canopus.  Canopus  married  the  star  Rigel,  but, 
having  murdered  her,  he  fled  towards  the  south  pole, 
fearing  the  anger  of  his  sisters.  Sirius,  it  is  related, 
followed  him  across  the  Milky  Way. 

In  her  Poems  of  Progress,  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox 
thus  writes: 

Since  Sirius  crossed  the  Milky  Way 

Full  sixty  thousand  years  have  gone, 
Yet  hour  by  hour,  and  day  by  day, 

This  tireless  star  speeds  on  and  on. 

On  planets  old  ere  form  or  place 

Was  lent  to  earth,  may  dwell — who  knows — 
A  God-like  and  perfected  race 

That  hails  great  Sirius  as  he  goes. 

Since  Sirius  crossed  the  Milky  Way 

Full  sixty  thousand  years  have  gone, 
No  mortal  man  may  bid  him  stay, 

No  mortal  man  may  speed  him  on. 

No  mortal  mind  may  comprehend 

What  i^  beyond,  what  was  before; 
To  God  be  glory  without  end, 

Let  man  be  humble  and  adore. 

The  radiant  Sirius  is  a  brilliantly  white  star  with  a 
tinge  of  blue  or  green,  and  its  official  magnitude,  —  1 .6, 
rates  it  as  the  most  splendid  of  all  the  stars.  Its 


204  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

spectrum  shows  that  it  is  in  a  relatively  early  stage  of 
solar  evolution,  and  is  enveloped  in  a  dense  atmosphere 
of  hydrogen  gas.  It  is  about  thirty  times  as  luminous 
as  the  sun,  and  has  about  ten  times  the  brilliancy  of 
either  Aldebaran  or  Altair,  and  about  one-ninth  that 
of  the  planet  Venus  when  at  its  greatest.  It  is  the 
nearest  of  the  stars  visible  to  the  unaided  eye  in  northern 
latitudes,  and  is  the  brightest  of  the  so-called  sirian 
stars.  To  its  relative  nearness,  it  owes  in  part  its 
apparent  supremacy,  as  it  is  by  no  means  the  largest 
sun  in  the  universe.  Rigel,  Canopus,  and  Betelgeux 
far  exceed  it  in  actual  luminosity.  The  late  Finnish 
poet,  Zakris  Topelius,  fancifully  accounted  for  the 
exceptional  magnitude  of  Sirius  by  stating  that  the 
lovers,  Zulamith  the  Bold  and  Salami  the  Fair,  after 
a  thousand  years  of  separation  and  toil,  while  building 
their  bridge  of  starry  light,  the  Milky  Way,  upon 
meeting  at  its  completion, 

Straight  rushed  into  each  other's  arms, 
And  melted  into  one. 
So  they  became  the  brightest  star 
In  heaven's  high  arch  that  dwelt, 
Great  Sirius,  the  mighty  Sun, 
Beneath  Orion's  belt. 

The  colour  of  Sirius,  like  that  of  some  of  the  other 
brighter  stars,  varies  with  its  altitude.  Its  momentary 
red  flashes,  seen  when  near  the  horizon,  and  doubtless 
due  to  the  irregular  dispersion  of  its  light  through 
tremulous  atmosphere,  seem  to  die  out  near  the  meri- 
dian. Miss  Proctor,  looking  at  it  one  evening  in  a 
six-inch  telescope,  as  it  emerged  from  below  the  south- 
eastern horizon,  described  it  as  flashing  with  all  the 
colours  of  the  rainbow: 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  205 

First  the  flaming  red 

Sprang  vivid  forth;  the  tawny  orange  next; 
And  next  delicious  yellow;  by  whose  side 
Fell  the  kind  beams  of  all-refreshing  green. 
Then  the  pure  blue,  that  swells  autumnal  skies, 
Ethereal  played. 

Tennyson,  in  The  Princess,  Part  Fifth,  thus  alludes  to 
it: 

The  fiery  Sirius  alters  hue 

And  bickers  into  red  and  emerald. 

On  account  of  its  super-brilliance,  it  has,  more  than 
once,  been  mistaken  for  a  planet. 

Sirius  is  one  of  the  very  noteworthy  binaries.  Its 
duplicity  was  detected  by  Alvan  Graham  Clark,  the 
famous  telescope-maker  of  Cambridgeport,  Mass.,  on 
January  31,  1862.  The  companion  star  is  a  dull  yellow 
star  about  ten  seconds  of  arc  distant  from  its  principal, 
and  nearly  half  as  massive.  It  is  of  only  the  ninth  and 
a  half  magnitude,  and  is  invisible  except  in  the  largest 
telescopes.  It  is  believed  to  be  approaching  the  stage 
in  which  its  light  will  practically  die  out.  The  two 
stars  revolve  around  their  common  centre  of  gravity, 
in  a  period  of  about  fifty-three  years,  in  an  orbit  some 
twenty  times  wider  than  that  of  the  earth  around  the 
sun.  In  his  Romance  of  Micr omegas  (1752),  Voltaire 
makes  mention  of  an  imaginary  planet  circling  around 
Sirius,  that  was  supposed  to  be  over  twenty-one  million 
times  larger  in  circumference  than  the  earth,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  were  proportionately  tall  (twenty 
miles)  and  proportionately  long-lived. 

Sirius  has  a  diameter  estimated  at  about  fifteen  times 
that  of  the  sun,  and  pours  forth  more  than  twenty  times 


206  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

as  much  light.  With  Betelgeux  and  Procyon  it  forms 
a  large  equilateral  triangle,  notable  for  containing 
within  its  borders  no  star  above  the  third  magnitude. 
Among  the  several  Egyptian  temples  oriented  to  it 
was  that  of  Isis  at  Denderah.  In  classic  days,  it  was 
regarded  as  a  star  of  ill  omen,  whose  "burning  breath," 
according  to  Homer, 

Taints  the  red  air  with  fevers,  plagues,  and  death. 

Sinus  rises  in  the  south-east,  and  takes  five  hours 
and  three  minutes  to  reach  the  meridian,  when  it  is 
about  one- third  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon.  Hence 
it  is  above  the  horizon  only  a  little  over  ten  hours  out 
of  the  twenty-four.  It  is  the  most  southern  of  the 
brilliant  winter  stars,  and  appears  in  the  evening  sky 
about  the  middle  of  November,  being  the  last  one  to 
return.  On  Thanksgiving  evening,  it  rises  about  nine 
o'clock,  and  on  Christmas  evening  shortly  after  seven. 
It  comes  to  the  meridian  at  9  P.M.  February  nth.  It 
shines  brightly  in  the  south-west  in  the  early  evening 
in  April,  and  retires  from  view  about  the  middle  of 
May.  It  is  eight  and  three-fourths  light  years  distant, 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  ten  and  a  third 
miles  a  second,  and  is  approaching  the  solar  system  at 
the  rate  of  five  miles  a  second. 

About  six  degrees  to  the  right  of  Sirius,  is  Beta,  or 
Mirzam,  the  second  star  of  the  constellation.  It  is  a 
star  of  about  the  second  magnitude,  and  is  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  dog's  uplifted  left  paw.  It  passes  the 
meridian  twenty-two  minutes  before  Sirius,  and  at 
about  the  same  height.  Some  fifteen  degrees  south- 
east of  Sirius  are  Delta,  or  Wezen,  and  Epsilon,  or  Adara, 
two  second-magnitude  stars,  in  the  right  flank  of  the 
dog.  Epsilon  is  an  orange-coloured  star,  with  a  ninth- 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  207 

magnitude  companion  of  a  violet  hue.  It  passes  the 
meridian  about  fourteen  minutes  after  Sirius,  about 
one-fourth  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon. 

Eta,  or  Aludra,  in  the  tail,  and  Zeta,  or  Furud,  in  the 
left  hind  paw,  are  both  of  the  third  magnitude.  The 
latter  forms  with  Mirzam,  Sirius,  and  Adara  a  trape- 
zium, which  is  almost  a  rectangle.  Nearly  in  line 
with  Sirius  and  Mirzam  is  Gamma,  or  Muliphen.  It  is 
a  fourth-magnitude  star  in  the  neck  of  the  dog,  and  is 
a  variable.  About  four  degrees  south  of  Sirius,  is  the 
star-cluster  1454.  Its  stars  appear  to  be  arranged  in 
curves,  and  in  the  centre  is  a  ruddy  star. 

Canis  Minor 

(The  Lesser  Dog) 

Canis  Minor,  the  Lesser  Dog,  lies  south  of  Gemini, 
and  north-east  of  Canis  Major,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Milky  Way  from  Orion.  It  is  a  small  but  ancient 
constellation,  about  fifteen  degrees  in  length,  and 
contains  only  one  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  one  of 
the  third,  and  five  of  about  the  fifth.  It  owes  its  pro- 
minence to  its  lucida,  Procyon,  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting stars  in  the  sky. 

According  to  Greek  fable,  the  Lesser  Dog  was  one 
of  the  other  faithful  dogs  of  Orion.  Another  legend 
asserts  that  it  was  one  of  Actaeon's  fifty  hounds,  that 
devoured  their  master,  after  Diana,  whom  he  had  seen 
bathing  with  her  nymphs  in  the  vale  of  Gargaphia,  had 
transformed  him  into  a  stag,  to  prevent,  as  she  said, 
his  betraying  her.  It  has  also  been  regarded  as  Helen's 
favourite,  that  was  lost  in  the  Euripus.  The  Latins 
called  it  "Antecanis,"  the  star  before  the  Dog. 

Alpha  Canis  Minoris,  also  known  as  Procyon,  be- 
cause it  heralds  the  approach  of  the  Greater  Dog,  is  a 


208  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

beautiful  yellowish-white  star  of  the  first  magnitude. 
Aratus  thus  alludes  to  it : 

The  dog's  precursor,  too,  shines  bright  beneath  the  Twins. 

Procyon  is  a  rapidly-scintillating  star,  and  is  the  only 
one  out  of  the  beautiful  group  of  winter  stars  that  is 
lightly  tinged  with  yellow.  It  is  situated  in  the  hind 
quarter  of  the  Lesser  Dog,  and  is  one  of  the  nearest 
of  the  brighter  stars.  It  is  almost  equidistant  from 
Betelgeux  and  Sirius,  and  forms  with  them  an  equi- 
lateral triangle,  across  which  flows  the  Milky  Way.  It 
has  a  faint,  twelfth-magnitude  companion,  of  a  yellow- 
ish hue,  discovered  by  Schaeberle  at  the  Lick  Observa- 
tory in  1896,  which  revolves  around  it  in  a  period  of 
about  forty  years.  Some  observations,  however,  lend 
support  to  the  belief  that  the  companion  may  be  a 
small  nebula  rather  than  a  star. 

In  order  of  stellar  evolution,  Procyon  is  about  mid- 
way between  Sirius  and  the  sun.  It  is  estimated  that 
it  gives  out  about  eight  times  as  much  light  as  the  latter 
orb.  Horace  in  his  ode  to  Maecenas,  wrote  of  it : 

Jam  Procyon  furit. 

which  Mr.  Gladstone  rendered: 

The  heavens  are  hot  with  Procyon's  rays. 

In  astrology  Procyon  portended  good  fortune  and 
wealth. 

Procyon  rises  a  little  north  of  east,  and  occupies  six 
hours  and  twenty-one  minutes  in  reaching  the  meridian, 
when  it  is  about  three-fifths  of  the  way  up  from  the 
horizon  to  the  zenith.  It  appears  above  the  horizon 
some  twenty  minutes  before  Sirius,  and  sets  between 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  209 

two  and  three  hours  after  it.  It  rises  when  the  sun 
sets  about  January  23d,  and  comes  to  the  meridian  at 
9  P.M.  February  24th.  It  is  ten  light  years  distant, 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  eleven  and  a  third  miles 
a  second,  and  is  approaching  the  solar  system  at  the 
rate  of  two  and  a  half  miles  a  second.  About  five 
degrees  from  Procyon,  in  an  oblique  line  towards 
Gemini,  is  the  white  third-magnitude  star,  Beta.  It 
is  sometimes  called  Gomeisa,  and  is  situated  in  the  neck 
of  the  Lesser  Dog. 

Monoceros 

(The  Unicorn) 

Lying  between  Orion  and  the  two  Dogs  is  the  large 
but  inconspicuous  constellation  Monoceros,  the  Uni- 
corn. It  was  familiar  to  the  Persians,  and  was  known 
in  early  times  as  the  Horse.  The  constellation  extends 
about  forty  degrees  from  east  to  west,  and  is  singularly 
barren  of  bright  stars,  having  but  four  as  bright  as 
the  fourth  magnitude.  It  contains,  however,  a  num- 
ber of  fine,  small  star-clusters,  some  of  which  are  good 
objects,  even  for  an  opera-glass  or  prism  binocular. 

Gemini 

(The  Twins) 

The  third  sign  and  fourth  constellation  of  the  zodiac, 
Gemini,  the  Twins,  is  a  highly  interesting  and  important 
constellation  lying  north-east  of  Taurus  and  west  of 
Cancer.  It  is  readily  recognised  by  its  two  chief  stars, 
Castor  and  Pollux,  sometimes  called  by  the  old  English 
people,  "the  Giant's  Eyes" — the  eyes  of  the  giant 
Daze.  Two  remarkable  parallel  rows  of  stars,  one 
leading  from  the  head  to  the  foot  of  Castor,  the  other 
leading  from  the  head  to  the  foot  of  Pollux,  also  help 
14 


210  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

to  identify  it.  On  most  celestial  maps  the  charming 
Twins  are  represented  as  two  sturdy  youths,  standing 
side  by  side  in  the  Milky  Way,  watching  the  conflict  be- 
tween Orion  and  the  Bull  (Frontispiece),  each  wearing, 
as  Mrs.  Martin  aptly  puts  it,  a  bright  star,  as  a  sort 
of  monocle,  in  the  outer  eye.  Manilius  thus  refers  to 
them: 

Tender  Gemini  in  strict  embrace 

Stand  clos'd  and  smiling  in  each  other's  face. 

Instead  of  twin  brothers  the  Orientals,  however,  occa- 
sionally adopted  two  kids,  and  the  Arabs  two  peacocks. 
The  Latin  title  Gemini  by  which  this  noted  star-group 
is  now  known  dates  only  from  early  classic  days. 

The  constellation  is  the  highest  in  the  zodiac,  and 
can  be  seen  from  October  to  early  June.  The  sun  passes 
through  it  from  June  i8th  to  July  i8th,  when  it  is  of 
course  invisible.  About  six  months  later  it  is  on  the 
meridian  at  midnight.  Altogether,  Gemini  contains 
one  star  of  near  the  first  magnitude,  two  of  about  the 
second,  three  of  about  the  third,  and  a  number  of  the 
fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  magnitudes. 

In  astrology  Gemini  is  of  the  House  of  Mercury.  It 
is  a  masculine  sign  and  fortunate.  Its  natives — those 
born  from  May  2Oth  to  June  2ist — are  said  to  be  ruled 
by  it. 

Alpha  Geminorum,  or  Castor,  the  most  northerly  of 
the  two  leading  stars  of  the  constellation,  is  a  well- 
known  double  star,  in  the  head  of  the  twin  named 
Castor,  and  is  noted  as  being  one  of  the  first  stars  de- 
monstrated to  be  of  a  binary  character.  Its  duplicity 
was  discovered  by  G.  D.  Cassini  in  1678.  It  is  the 
brightest  and  most  beautiful  double  in  the  northern 
skies,  and  is  the  best  object  of  its  class  for  a  small 


_  •  "..  ,  ..      V 

The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  2 1 1 

telescope.  The  principal  star  is  white  with  a  slightly 
greenish  tinge,  and  of  about  the  second  magnitude, 
while  the  companion  star  is  approximately  of  the  third 
magnitude,  and  also  of  a  greenish-white  hue.  The 
two  components  are  only  four  seconds  of  arc  apart, 
and  cannot  be  separated  without  the  aid  of  a  two-inch 
telescope.  The  period  of  revolution  is  estimated  at 
three  hundred  and  forty-seven  years.  Then,  too,  both 
components  are  themselves  spectroscopic  binaries, 
the  fainter  component  having  a  tiny  satellite  revolving 
around  it  in  a  period  of  about  three  days,  and  the 
brighter  component,  one  with  a  period  of  about  nine 
days.  Both  the  main  components  of  Castor  belong 
to  the  sirian  type  of  stars,  that  large  class  which  in- 
cludes about  half  of  all  the  stars  in  the  sky.  It  was 
from  observation  of  this  pair  of  stars  that  Sir  Wm. 
Herschel  arrived  at  the  knowledge  of  the  physical 
connection  of  the  double  stars.  Castor  is  about  one 
hundred  and  sixteen  light  years  distant,  has  a  proper 
or  cross  motion  of  twenty-one  miles  a  second,  and  is 
receding  from  the  solar  system  at  the  rate  of  nearly 
four  miles  a  second. 

About  four  and  a  half  degrees  to  the  left  of  Castor 
is  Beta  Geminorum  or  Pollux,  a  slightly  orange-tinted 
star,  of  rather  less  than  the  first  magnitude.  It  is  in 
the  head  of  the  twin  named  Pollux,  and  is  nowr  a  brighter 
star  than  Castor,  although  about  three  centuries  ago 
the  latter  was  the  lucida  of  the  constellation.  An 
imaginary  line  drawn  through  Rigel  and  Betelgeux 
points  directly  to  it.  Like  Capella  and  the  sun,  Pollux 
belongs  to  the  solar  type  of  stars.  It  is  a  multiple 
star  of  at  least  six  components,  most  of  them  too  faint 
for  easy  observation.  It  is  fifty-one  light  years  distant, 
has  a  proper  or  cross  motion  of  twenty-eight  and  a  half 


212  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

miles  a  second,  and  is  receding  from  the  solar  system 
at  the  rate  of  two  miles  a  second.  It  is  one  of  the  stars 
from  which  the  moon's  distance  is  calculated.  In 
astrology  Pollux  was  a  fortunate  star,  portending 
eminence  and  renown. 

The  twin  stars  rise  in  the  north-east,  Castor  occupy- 
ing eight  hours  and  fifteen  minutes,  and  Pollux  seven 
hours  and  fifty-three  minutes,  in  reaching  the  meridian, 
when  the  former  is  nine-tenths  and  the  latter  seven- 
eighths  of  the  way  up  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith. 
They  become  a  familiar  feature  in  the  early  evening  sky 
in  November,  and  about  January  1st  rise  at  the  time 
the  sun  sets.  They  culminate  at  9  P.M.  February  24th, 
Castor  passing  the  meridian  about  eleven  minutes 
before  Pollux.  They  are  about  the  last  of  the  radiant 
winter  stars  to  leave  the  western  sky,  and  are  partic- 
ularly attractive  during  the  evenings  of  May  and  early 
June.  Owen  Meredith,  in  The  Wanderer,  thus  refers 
to  them: 

The  lone  Ledaean  lights  from  yon  enchanted  air 

Look  down  upon  my  spirit,  like  a  spirit's  eyes  that  love  me. 

After  the  two  leading  stars,  the  brightest  star  in  the 
constellation  is  Gamma,  or  Alhena,  a  star  of  about  the 
second  and  a  half  magnitude,  in  the  left  foot  of  Pollux. 
Delta,  or  Wasat,  is  a  yellowish  third-magnitude  double 
star,  in  Pollux's  right  arm,  and  Zeta,  or  Mekbuda,  is  a 
third-magnitude  double  star,  and  a  variable,  in  his 
right  thigh.  Zeta  is  a  bright  yellow  star,  with  a  bluish 
companion  of  the  seventh  magnitude.  The  principal 
star  varies  its  light,  from  about  the  third  to  about  the 
fourth  magnitude,  in  a  period  of  ten  days,  three  hours, 
and  forty-three  minutes.  Theta,  a  third-magnitude 
star,  is  in  the  outstretched  left  hand  of  Castor,  and 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  2 13 

Epsilon,  or  Mebusta,  a  white,  third-magnitude  double 
star,  is  in  his  left  thigh.  The  two  third-magnitude 
stars  Eta,  or  Propus,  and  Mu,  or  Tejat,  mark  Castor's 
left  foot  and  ankle.  Eta  belongs  to  the  long-period 
variables,  and  is  noted  as  marking  the  locality  where 
Sir  William  Herschel  discovered  the  planet  Uranus, 
on  the  I3th  of  March,  1781.  The  period  of  its  variation 
occupies  about  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  and  a  half 
days,  and  its  brightness  varies  between  the  third  and 
fourth  magnitudes. 

A  little  west  of  Mu  is  a  fifth-magnitude  star,  which 
marks  the  location  of  the  summer  solstice — the  point 
where  the  sun  appears  to  be,  when  it  is  farthest  north 
of  the  equator,  on  June  2ist. 

About  two  degrees  north-west  of  Eta  is  a  splendid 
star-cluster,  35  M,  which  can  be  seen  with  a  good  opera- 
glass,  and  is  just  visible  to  the  naked  eye  on  a  clear 
moonless  night.  It  is  beautiful  even  in  a  field-glass 
or  prism  binocular,  and  is  a  fascinating  sight  in  a  small 
telescope.  On  March  12,  1912,  a  new  star,  called 
Enebo's  Nova,  blazed  out  in  Gemini,  about  two  degrees 
south  of  Theta.  It  was  discovered  by  Sigurd  Enebo, 
an  observer  of  variables,  at  Dombas,  Norway.  It  was 
of  a  creamy-white  colour,  and  of  about  the  fourth 
magnitude,  and  was  easily  visible  to  the  naked  eye. 
The  discovery  was  confirmed  by  two  photographs 
taken  at  Harvard  Observatory  on  March  nth.  Its 
brightness  fluctuated  markedly,  though  on  the  whole 
it  diminished  rapidly,  and  its  hue  deepened  accordingly. 
Dark  lines  of  uranium  and  radium  emanation  have 
been  found  in  its  spectrum. 

The  mythological  history  of  Gemini,  the  Twins,  is 
not  without  interest.  The  constellation  is  regarded  as 
representing  the  twin  brothers  Castor  and  Pollux, 


214  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

famous  knights  of  antiquity  who  were  paid  divine 
honours  both  in  Sparta  and  Rome.  According  to 
Homer,  they  were  the  sons  of  Leda  and  Tyndarus,  King 
of  Lacedaemon,  and  consequently  brothers  of  Helen 
of  Trojan  fame.  Other  tradition  relates  that  they 
were  doughty  sons  of  Jupiter  and  Leda,  "so  famed  for 
love,"  as  Cowley  writes.  They  were  the  Damon  and 
Pythias,  the  Pylades  and  Orestes  of  the  sky,  and  were 
said  to  have  been  born  at  the  same  time  with  their 
sister  Helen,  out  of  an  egg.  Yet  another  legend  asserts 
that  Pollux  and  Helen  only  were  children  of  Jupiter,  and 
that  Castor  was  the  son  of  Tyndarus.  Hence  Pollux  was 
immortal,  while  Castor,  like  every  other  human,  was 
mortal.  Castor  excelled  in  equestrian  exercises  and  the 
management  of  horses,  while  Pollux  was  renowned  for 
his  bravery  with  arms,  and  for  boxing.  They  took  part 
in  the  hunt  of  the  Calydonian  boar,  and  accompanied 
the  Argonauts  in  quest  of  the  Golden  Fleece. 

Fair  Leda's  twins,  in  time  to  stars  decreed. 

In  the  celebrated  fight  between  the  twin  brothers 
and  the  sons  of  Aphareus,  Castor  was  mortally  wounded 
by  Idas,  but  Pollux  slew  Lynceus,  and  Jupiter  killed  Idas 
with  a  flash  of  lightning.  Whereupon,  Pollux  being  in- 
consolable at  the  death  of  Castor,  Jupiter,  desiring  to  im- 
mortalise such  proof  of  fraternal  love,  offered  either  to 
take  him  up  to  Olympus,  or  let  him  share  his  immortality 
with  his  brother.  Pollux,  it  is  said,  preferred  the  latter, 
and  so  the  brothers  spend  alternate  days  on  Mount  Olym- 
pus and  in  Pluto's  realm.  As  Virgil  aptly  puts  it: 

Pollux  offering  his  alternate  life, 

Could  free  his  brother,  and  could  daily  go 

By  turns  aloft,  by  turns  descend  below. 


The  Night-Sky  of  Winter  215 

They  were  looked  upon  by  the  ancients  as  the  friends 
and  protectors  of  navigation,  and  were  often  repre- 
sented in  the  carved  figureheads  of  ships.  The  balls 
of  electric  flame  seen  at  the  masthead  and  the  yard- 
arm,  in  stormy  weather,  and  known  as  "Ledaean 
lights,"  or  "St.  Elmo's  lamps,"  were  named  in  honour 
of  them.  It  will  be  remembered  that  St.  Paul,  after 
the  eventful  voyage  that  had  ended  in  shipwreck  on 
the  island  of  Melita,  sailed  from  there  to  Puteoli,  "in 
a  ship  of  Alexandria,"  "whose  sign  was  Castor  and 
Pollux"  (Acts  xxviii.,  n),  and  naturally  had  a  safe 
voyage  to  Rome. 

The  Twins  are  usually  represented  in  works  of  art 
as  two  youthful  horsemen,  with  egg-shaped  helmets 
crowned  with  stars,  and  with  spears  in  their  hands. 
The  old  Romans  often  swore  by  them,  and  later  the 
name  of  the  constellation  itself  came  to  be  used  in  the 
same  way. 

A  superstition  prevailed  among  the  Romans,  and 
other  nations,  that  Castor  and  Pollux  often  took  part 
in  their  hard-fought  battles,  and  led  their  troops  to 
victory.  Whenever  they  appeared,  they  were  seen 
clad  in  rare  armour,  riding  side  by  side,  on  magnificent 
snow-white  steeds.  It  is  said  that  at  the  great  battle 
on  the  banks  of  Lake  Regillus  (B.C.  496),  the  Heavenly 
Twins  suddenly  appeared,  armed  and  mounted,  to  aid 
the  hard-pressed  Romans  in  their  desperate  fight  with 
the  Etruscans,  and  afterwards  carried  the  news  of 
victory  to  the  city.  A  temple  (Plate  XIX.)  was  sub- 
sequently erected  to  them  in  the  Forum,  on  the  very 
spot  where  they  had  been  seen  after  the  battle,  op- 
posite the  famous  Temple  of  Vesta,  by  order  of  the 
dictator  Albinus,  and  was  later  consecrated  on  the  Ides 
of  Quintilis,  July  I5th,  480  B.C.,  the  anniversary  of  the 


216  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

battle.  The  temple  was  usually  called  that  of  Castor 
only,  and  was  rebuilt  more  than  once.  The  few  frag- 
ments now  remaining,  consisting  of  three  Corinthian 
columns  with  a  very  rich  entablature,  are  of  the 
finest  Pentelic  marble,  and  belong  to  the  temple  as  it 
was  restored  by  Tiberius  in  6  A.D.  Concerning  these 
columns,  careful  antiquarians  like  Middleton  say  they 
are  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  architectural  fragments 
in  Rome. 

Macaulay,  in  his  stirring  poem,  The  Battle  of  the  Lake 
Regillus,  most  fittingly  celebrates  the  two  youthful 
warriors,  as  he  makes  Sergius  the  High  Pontiff  say : 

The  Gods  who  live  for  ever 

Have  fought  for  Rome  to-day! 
These  be  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

To  whom  the  Dorians  pray. 

Back  comes  the  Chief  in  triumph, 

Who,  in  the  hour  of  fight, 
Hath  seen  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

In  harness  on  his  right. 

Safe  comes  the  ship  to  haven 

Through  billows  and  through  gales, 

If  once  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 
Sit  shining  on  the  sails. 

Wherefore  they  washed  their  horses 

In  Vesta's  holy  well, ' 
Wherefore  they  rode  to  Vesta's  door, 

I  know,  but  may  not  tell. 

Here,  hard  by  Vesta's  temple, 

Build  we  a  stately  dome 
Unto  the  great  Twin  Brethren 

Who  fought  so  well  for  Rome. 

1  Locus  Juturnce — a  spring  that  belonged,  it  is  said,  to  the  nymph 
Juturna,  the  waters  of  which  were  believed  to  bring  healing  to  mankind. 


Anderson 


PLATE  XIX.     The  Three  Columns  of  the  Temple  of  Castor  and 
Pollux  at  Rome 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  MILKY  WAY — VARIABLE   AND  TEMPORARY  STARS 

Heaven's  broad  causeway  paved  with  stars. 

WORDSWORTH,  Dion,  Sec.  IV. 

A  MOST  conspicuous  and  wonderful  feature  of  the 
night-sky,  in  the  absence  of  moonlight,  is  the  broad, 
irregular  band  of  diffused,  softly  glowing,  misty  light,  en- 
circling the  whole  star-sphere,  known  as  the  Galaxy,  or 
the  Milky  Way — La  Voie  Lactee.  This  great  luminous 
belt,  which  has  attracted  special  attention  in  all  ages, 
consists  of  aggregations  of  enormously  distant,,  faint 
stars,  disposed  in  vast  sparkling  clouds,  swarms,  clus- 
ters, and  streams,  intermingled  often  with  immense 
areas  of  green  nebulous  matter  which  serve  as  a  lumi- 
nous background  to  the  stars  themselves.  It  is  re- 
garded as  the  fundamental  reference  plane  of  the  entire 
universe,  as  the  equator  is  of  the  earth,  and  is  quaintly 
referred  to  by  Henry  Vaughan  in  Sun-Days,  as 

The  Milky  Way  chalk't  out  with  Suns. 

As  the  Milky  Way  is  approached,  the  stars  increase 
gradually  in  number,  and  are  closer  together  in  this 
region  than  elsewhere  in  the  universe.  In  or  close  along 
its  course,  the  outlines  of  which  are  roughly  indicated 
on  the  charts,  are  to  be  found  the  majority  of  the  first- 
magnitude  stars,  and  generally,  it  may  be  said,  the 

217 


218  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

naked-eye  stars  are  most  numerous  in  and  around  the 
Galaxy.  Stellar  clouds  and  star-swarms,  which  are 
looked  upon  as  characteristic  features  of  the  Galaxy, 
are  markedly  confined  within  its  borders,  while  star- 
clusters,  though  more  numerous  inside  the  Milky  Way, 
are  observed  outside  as  well.  Although,  broadly  speak- 
ing, the  green  or  gaseous  nebulae  are  distributed  in  and 
near  the  Milky  Way,  the  white  nebulas,  which  are 
by  far  the  most  numerous,  but  whose  precise  constitu- 
tion remains  undetermined,  are  located  on  either  side, 
but  are  rather  remote  from  certain  stretches  of  it,  and 
crowd  toward  the  northern  galactic  pole. 

Barnard's  remarkable  series  of  photographs  of  its 
star-clouds,  streams,  clusters,  holes,  dark  lanes,  and 
nebulous  masses,  which  will  probably  never  be  excel- 
led, have  afforded  much  information  as  to  the  struc- 
ture of  this  mighty  star-girdle  of  the  Universe. 

Elizabeth  Carter,  who  has  written  some  of  the  best 
lines  about  the  Milky  Way,  thus  says  of  it : 

Throughout  the  Galaxy's  extended  line 
Unnumbered  orbs  in  gay  confusion  shine, 
Where  ev'ry  star  that  gilds  the  gloom  of  night 
With  the  faint  trembling  of  a  distant  light 
Perhaps  illumes  some  system  of  its  own 
With  the  strong  influence  of  a  radiant  sun. 

The  Milky  Way,  as  it  branches  forth  into  divisions 
and  ramifications,  varies  greatly  both  in  width  and 
brightness,  and  is  inclined  to  the  axis  of  the  equator 
at  an  angle  of  about  twenty-five  degrees,  the  northern 
galactic  pole  being  situated  near  Coma  Berenices  and 
the  southern  in  Cetus.  It  includes  within  its  limits 
about  ninety-nine  one-hundredths  of  all  the  stars,  and 
occupies  nearly  one-tenth  of  the  whole  stellar  dome, 


The  Milky  Way  219 

This  majestical  roof,  fretted  with  golden  fire. 

The  distance  of  the  galactic  stars  has  been  estimated 
at  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  light  years,  or  over 
sixty  thousand  million  million  miles. 

Across  the  relatively  empty  space  in  the  vast  ring  or 
spiral  of  far-off  stars,  supposedly  composing  the  Great 
White  Way,  and  in  which  are  situated  some  thousands 
of  scattered  stars,  the  proper  motion  of  the  sun  is  carry- 
ing the  solar  system  from  somewhere  near  its  centre, 
and  somewhat  above  its  plane,  toward  its  northern 
border.  It  is  believed  to  be  moving  across  the  central 
opening  at  the  rate  of  over  two  hundred  million  miles 
a  year,  and  will,  if  it  continues  in  a  straight  course, 
arrive  at  the  edge  of  the  Milky  Way  in  the  north,  after 
a  journey  of  some  twenty-five  million  years. 

Winding  among  the  constellations  the  Milky  Way,  or 
the  Galaxy,  as  the  reader  may  prefer  to  call  it,  may  be 
seen  in  some  portion  of  its  extent,  and  at  some  hour  of 
the  night,  at  all  seasons  of  the  year.  In  summer  it 
spans  the  heavens  from  north  to  south,  passing  some- 
what south-east  of  the  zenith,  displaying  to  advantage 
its  great  bifurcation  and  some  of  its  splendid  reaches. 
During  autumn  it  sweeps  from  the  north-east  horizon 
across  the  zenith,  to  the  south-west,  and  in  winter  it 
crosses  from  south-east  to  north-west,  a  little  north  of  the 
zenith.  In  early  spring  it  sweeps  from  north  to  south, 
passing  south-west  of  the  zenith,  while  between  spring 
and  summer  it  stretches  along  the  northern  horizon. 

Beginning  near  the  North  Pole,  the  Milky  Way  may 
be  traced  in  the  order  of  right  ascension,  through  the 
constellations  Cassiopeia,  Perseus,  and  Auriga,  and 
between  the  shining  feet  of  Gemini  and  the  horns  of 
Taurus,  where  it  intersects  the  ecliptic.  Thence  it 


220  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

passes  over  the  club  of  Orion,  through  Monoceros,  and 
over  the  head  of  Canis  Major,  to  the  prow  of  the  ship 
Argo.  On  leaving  Argo  it  goes  through  Charles's  Oak, 
the  lower  part  of  the  Southern  Cross,  and  the  feet  of  the 
Centaur.  Here  it  is  divided  into  two  branches,  the 
larger  and  brighter  one  passing  through  the  celestial 
Altar,  the  tail  of  the  Scorpion,  the  bow  of  Sagittarius, 
and  Sobieski's  Shield. 

Crossing  the  equinoctial  on  its  way  north,  it  winds 
over  the  feet  of  Antinous  into  Aquila,  through  Sagitta 
and  up  to  Cygnus,  where  it  involves  the  entire  figure  of 
the  so-called  Northern  Cross.  Thence  it  crosses  a  part 
of  Cepheus,  and  passes  on  to  Cassiopeia,  where  the 
tracing  began.  The  other  branch  crosses  below 
the  heart  of  the  Scorpion,  and  is  eventually  lost  in  the 
borders  of  Ophiuchus,  though  a  great  and  vivid  branch, 
which  is  usually  represented  as  a  continuation  of  it, 
runs  down  from  Gamma  Cygni  through  Beta  Cygni  or 
Albireo,  almost  to  the  equinoctial,  where  it  seems  to  lose 
itself  in  a  region  only  sparsely  supplied  with  stars. 

In  what  is  considered  its  widest  part,  namely  the 
region  between  Orion  and  the  Lesser  Dog,  it  is  about 
forty-five  degrees  in  breadth,  while  in  some  of  its 
narrowest  portions,  found  between  Cassiopeia  and  Per- 
seus, and  at  a  point  in  the  Southern  Cross,  it  is  not 
more  than  three  or  four  degrees  in  width.  It  is  both 
broad  and  brilliant  in  the  region  between  Cyngus, 
where  it  is  of  marvellous  richness,  and  the  southern 
horizon,  but  its  most  brilliant  part  lies  south  of  the 
equator.  In  Sagittarius  may  be  seen  spots  which,  to 
the  naked  eye,  appear  as  luminous  knots,  while  close 
to  Deneb  in  Cygnus  is  a  typical  instance  of  a  star- 
stream,  easily  visible  with  a  prism  binocular. 

Down  in  the  southern  Milky  Way  is  a  typical  chasm, 


The  Milky  Way  221 

known  as  the  great  austral  "Coal-sack."  It  is  the 
most  famous  dark  gap  or  hole  in  the  Milky  Way,  and  is 
situated  between  the  Southern  Cross  and  Alpha  and 
Beta  Centauri,  in  a  part  of  the  sky,  otherwise  so  bright 
that  it  is  the  more  noticeable.  This  great  gap  is  a  dark, 
oval  or  pear-shaped  spot,  about  eight  degrees  long,  and 
five  degrees  wide,  with  a  single,  faint,  naked-eye  star 
in  the  centre,  and  a  few  scattered,  telescopic  stars.  In 
this  remarkable  region,  somewhat  below  the  Coal-sack, 
is  the  place  of  nearest  approach  of  the  great  galactic 
belt  to  the  South  Pole,  which  is  situated  near  the  sixth- 
magnitude  star  Sigma,  in  the  constellation  Octans,  the 
antarctic  equivalent  of  Ursa  Minor. 

There  are  a  number  of  remarkable  dark  gaps  or  Coal- 
sacks,  in  Sagittarius,  two  of  which,  in  the  region  near 
8  M,  are  shown  in  Plate  IX.  Then,  too,  there  is,  in  the 
northern  hemisphere,  a  hole  or  dark  gap  in  the  Milky 
Way,  similar  to,  though  perhaps  less  perfect  than,  the 
great  southern  one,  near  the  top  of  the  cross-shaped 
figure  in  Cygnus,  called  the  "northern  Coal-sack  in 
Cygnus. ' '  Many  of  the  gaps  or  spots  are  true  apertures, 
due  possibly  to  the  peculiar  tendency  of  stars  to  accu- 
mulate in  certain  places,  thus  leaving  others  vacant, 
while  some  may  be  due  to  the  presence  of  "dark 
nebulae."  A  most  interesting  peculiarity,  well  seen 
during  autumn  and  early  winter,  is  the  "  great  bifurca- 
tion'*—that  great  rift  dividing  the  Milky  Way,  from 
Cygnus  in,  the  northern  hemisphere,  all  the  way  to 
Centaurus  in  the  southern. 

The  mythology  of  the  Milky  Way  is  especially  inter- 
esting. According  to  almost  universal  fable,  it  has 
been  regarded  as  the  bright  highway — the  "Broadway 
of  the  Heavens" — along  which  the  Gods  repaired 
to  High  Olympus,  or  it  was  the  road  traversed  by 


222  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  souls  of  the  departed  on  "the  way,"  as  Milton 
has  it, 

To  God's  eternal  home. 

To  the  Algonquin  Indians,  not  only  was  it  the  path  of 
departed  souls,  but  the  brighter  stars  along  its  borders 
were  the  camp-fires  that  marked  the  halting  places  of 
the  spirits  on  their  weary  march  to  the  happy  hunting- 
grounds.  Longfellow  alludes  to  this  in  Hiawatha, 
Chapter  XV.,  in  describing  the  journey  of  the  gentle 
Chibiabos,  the  sweetest  of  musicians,  to  the  land  of  the 
hereafter : 

Telling  him  a  fire  to  kindle 

For  all  those  that  died  thereafter, 

Camp-fires  for  their  night  encampments 

On  their  solitary  journey 

To  the  kingdom  of  Ponemah, 

To  the  land  of  the  hereafter. 
\ 

And  again,  in  narrating  how  the  "wrinkled,  old  No- 
komis  nursed  the  little  Hiawatha, "  he  thus  refers  to  the 
Milky  Way: 

Many  things  Nokomis  taught  him, 
Showed  the  broad,  white  road  to  heaven. 
Pathway  of  the  ghosts,  the  shadows, 
Running  straight  across  the  heavens. 

By  the  ancient  Mexicans  the  Milky  Way  was  aptly 
termed  the  "Sister  of  the  Rainbow."  In  Japan  and 
China  it  was  the  "Celestial  River. "  To  the  Norsemen 
and  Scandinavians  it  was  the  path  to  Valhalla,  up 
which  went  the  souls  of  their  warriors  who  fell  in  battle. 
To  the  Pawnee  Indians,  it  was  a  cloud  of  dust  kicked 
up  by  a  buffalo  and  a  horse  racing  across  the  sky.  In 


The  Magellanic  Clouds  223 

France  it  was  known  as  "  Le  Chemin  de  Saint  Jacques. " 
It  is  "Die  Jakobstrasse"  (Jacob's  Road)  of  the  Ger- 
mans, the  mystic  ladder,  which  the  patriarch  saw  in  his 
dream  at  Bethel,  and  beheld  the  "angels  of  God  ascend- 
ing and  descending  on  it"  (Genesis  xxviiL,  12).  By 
the  old  English  people  it  was  sometimes  called  "  Watling 
Street,"  "Asgard's  Bridge,"  and  the  "Fairies1  Path." 
By  Bacon  the  Galaxy,  the  "Silver  River  of  Heaven," 
is  compared  to  fortune  thus: 

The  way  of  fortune  is  like  the  Milky  Way  in  the  sky, 
which  is  a  meeting  or  knot  of  a  number  of  small  stars, 
not  seen  asunder,  but  giving  light  together.  So  are  there 
a  number  of  little  and  scarce  discerned  virtues,  or  rather 
faculties  and  customs,  that  make  men  fortunate. 

The  Magellanic  Clouds 

Situated  in  the  southern  hemisphere  are  the  Magel- 
lanic Clouds,  two  remarkable  objects,  first  named  Cape 
Clouds,  and  otherwise  known  as  the  Nubecula  Major 
and  the  Nubecula  Minor.  They  were  described ,  in  1 5 1 6, 
by  Corsali,  and  were  named  after  the  great  Portuguese 
circumnavigator,  Magellan.  In  appearance  they  re- 
semble detached  portions  of  the  Milky  Way.  They  are 
roughly  of  a  circular  form,  and  are  situated  in  a  locality 
singularly  vacant  of  bright  stars.  They  are  nearer  the 
South  Pole  than  is  the  Galaxy,  the  Greater  Cloud  being 
in  the  constellation  Dorado  (the  Swordfish)  and  the 
Lesser  Cloud  in  Hydrus  (the  Little  Water-serpent). 
The  greater  cloud  covers  a  space  in  the  sky  of  forty- 
two  square  degrees,  and  the  lesser  a  space  of  about  ten. 
While  the  lesser  cloud  almost  entirely  disappears  in  full 
moonlight,  and  the  greater  one  loses  a  considerable 


224  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

portion  of  its  brightness,  both  are  distinctly  visible,  in 
the  southern  hemisphere,  on  a  clear,  moonless  night, 
and  present  a  promiscuous  intermingling  of  star-clouds, 
star-clusters,  and  gaseous  nebulae.  No  parallax  has  yet 
been  found  for  them. 

The  Zodiacal  Light 

The  Zodiacal  Light,  quaintly  referred  to  by  Elgie,  in 
his  Night-Skies  of  a  Year,  as  that  "'elusive  dream  of 
quiet  beauty,  studied  for  centuries  but  mysterious  still, " 
may  be  defined  as  a  faint,  cone-shaped,  pearly  radiance 
seen  in  the  west  after  evening  twilight  in  the  spring,  and 
in  the  east  before  morning  twilight  in  the  autumn.  It 
lies  along  the  ecliptic,  and,  in  a  clear  and  moon-free  sky, 
may  be  traced  almost  to  the  meridian  south  of  the 
zenith,  slanting  up  from  the  sunset  glow  in  a  line, 
which,  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  leans  towards  the 
south.  Its  figure,  which  resembles  a  lens  edgeways,  is 
broadest  close  to  the  horizon,  where  it  may  be  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  degrees  wide,  and  is  brightest  along  its 
central  line. 

In  northern  and  middle  latitudes,  this  mystic  light  is 
visible  in  the  evening  about  an  hour  and  a  half  after 
sunset,  from  the  middle  of  February  to  the  middle  of 
April,  extending  upward  toward  the  Pleiades,  and  in 
the  morning  during  September  and  October  extending 
towards  the  south.  It  is  usually  much  fainter  than  the 
Milky  Way,  though  it  has  at  times  been  seen  brighter, 
and  is  sometimes  taken  for  the  twilight  or  dawn,  but  its 
nature  may  be  readily  recognised  from  its  form,  though 
it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  determine  exactly  where  its 
borders  are. 

In  tropical  regions,  where  it  appears  as  a  band  of 


The  Zodiacal  Light  225 

light,  rather  than  as  a  cone,  it  is  visible  the  year  round, 
about  an  hour  or  less  after  sunset,  and  is  reported  to  be 
easily  seen  in  full  moonlight.  It  was  known  to  the 
Arabs  as  the  "False  Dawn,"  and  was  called  the  "Zodi- 
acal Light,"  because  it  lies  within  the  circle  of  the 
zodiac.  Attention  was  first  directed  to  it  in  1663  by 
a  clergyman  named  Childrey,  but  the  first  particular 
description  of  it  was  by  the  elder  Cassini  (Giovanni 
Domenico)  in  1683. 

The  exact  nature  of  the  light  remains  more  or  less  a 
mystery,  and  all  that  can,  with  certainty,  be  said  of  it 
is  that  it  exists.  The  polariscope  and  the  spectroscope 
show  it  to  be  merely  reflected  sunlight.  One  theory 
regards  it  as  the  reflection  of  light  from  diffused  dust, 
probably  meteoric  matter,  revolving  round  the  sun 
nearly  in  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  while  another  sup- 
poses it  to  be  a  very  faint  extension  of  the  sun's 
corona. 

Occasionally  a  very  interesting  phenomenon,  known 
as  the  Green  Flash,  is  seen,  in  some  latitudes,  just  as  the 
sun  is  disappearing  over  the  western  horizon.  It  is 
characterised  by  the  shooting  up  of  a  little  green  flame, 
and  the  turning  green  of  the  tiny  tip  that  is  left  of  the 
sun,  just  before  it  finally  disappears. 

The  Gegenschein,  the  weird,  "Counter-glow"  to  the 
sun,  which  travels  through  that  part  of  the  night  sky 
immediately  opposite  the  sun,  is  a  faintly  marked  patch 
of  light,  somewhat  oval  in  shape,  from  five  to  ten 
degrees  in  breadth,  and  ten  to  twenty  degrees  in  length. 
It  falls  in  the  Milky  Way  in  June  and  December  and  is 
then  invisible.  At  other  times  it  may  be  looked  for  on 
a  perfectly  clear  and  moonless  night,  when  the  sun  is 
considerably  below  the  horizon.  The  best  time  for 
observing  it  is  in  the  autumn  months,  September  and 
is 


226  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

October.  It  is,  as  Serviss  says,  "an  extremely  elusive 
phenomenon,"  seen  only  under  the  most  favourable 
atmospheric  conditions,  and  is  generally  considered  as 
being  of  similar  origin  to  the  zodiacal  light. 

It  was  not  discovered  until  1854,  and  is  looked  upon 
by  some  astronomers  as  a  sort  of  tail  to  the  earth,  seen 
sidewise,  made  up  of  hydrogen  and  helium,  driven  off 
from  it,  in  a  direction  contrary  to  the  sun.  Professor 
Barnard,  it  may  be  observed,  has  devoted  much  atten- 
tion to  both  it  and  the  zodiacal  light,  in  the  endeavour  to 
solve  the  mystery  of  these  two  strange  appearances  in 
the  night-skies. 

The  Aurora  Borealis 

One  of  the  most  wonderful  sights  in  the  night-skies 
is  the  Aurora  Borealis,  a  luminous,  awe-inspiring  phe- 
nomenon, manifesting  itself  by  beams  and  streamers  of 
light  shooting  up  from  the  northern  horizon  toward  the 
zenith,  or  appearing  as  an  arch  of  light  across  the 
heavens  from  east  to  west.  The  streamers,  which  are 
generally  rather  brighter  toward  the  west,  often  ascend 
in  a  fan  shape,  from  a  dusky  line  or  segment  a  few 
degrees  above  the  horizon.  When  the  light  extends 
southward  beyond  the  zenith,  it  forms  what  is  known 
as  the  corona. 

The  Aurora  Borealis  is  popularly  called  the  "North- 
ern Lights,"  the  "Northern  Dawn,"  or  the  "Merry 
Dancers,"  and  though  sometimes  seen  in  temperate 
latitudes,  is  viewed  to  best  advantage  in  the  Arctic 
regions,  and  is  remarkable  for  the  brilliant  display  of 
colours  with  which  it  is  often  accompanied.  The  pre- 
vailing colour  in  the  higher  latitudes  is,  it  is  said, 
usually  white.  When  the  colours  brighten,  they  take 


The  Aurora  Borealis  227 

on  a  golden  yellow  tinge,  the  edges  of  the  rays  being 
marked  by  bands  of  red  and  green.  Not  infrequently, 
the  display  has  the  appearance  of  arches  of  fiery  mist 
in  the  sky  toward  the  north.  The  height  of  the  Aurora 
above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  varies  usually  from 
about  twenty-two  to  forty-four  miles,  though  often 
it  is  as  high  as  six  hundred  miles. 

Observations  show  that  auroral  displays  are  more 
frequent  before  than  after  midnight,  and  that  they  are 
intimately  associated  with  an  outbreak  of  sun-spots 
and  with  terrestrial  magnetic  disturbances,  the  focus 
of  the  displays  being  in  the  north  magnetic  pole.  In 
any  locality  the  displays  are  more  numerous  in  March 
and  September,  and  are  fewer  in  December,  and  again 
still  fewer  in  June. 

The  Aurora  is  supposed,  as  suggested  by  Dudley,  to 
be  due  to  the  presence  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  very 
rare,  inert,  gaseous  element  called  neon,  discovered  by 
Ramsay  in  1898,  which  has  the  property  of  becoming 
luminous  when  acted  upon  by  magnetic  discharges, 
whether  of  the  earth  currents  or  of  streams  of  electric 
atoms  called  ions,  sent  forth  by  disturbances  on  the 
sun's  surface.  The  displays,  it  is  held,  result  from  the 
neon  gas,  which  becomes  condensed  by  the  cold  near 
the  poles,  catching  and  holding  the  magnetic  streams. 
A  phenomenon  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  of  corre- 
sponding nature  to  the  Aurora  Borealis,  and  having  its 
centre  at  the  south  magnetic  pole,  is  called  the  Aurora 
Australis. 

The  beautiful  primrose-coloured  Sun- glow,  that  often 
lights  up  the  northern  sky  during  clear  summer  nights, 
is  a  sort  of  reflection  thrown  up  by  the  sun,  which  at 
this  season,  in  northern  latitudes,  does  not  sink  very 
far  below  the  northern  horizon. 


228  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Nebula 

Those  strange,  weird-looking,  cloud-like  celestial  ob- 
jects— worlds  it  may  be  in  the  making — which  recent 
advances  in  celestial  photography  have  shown  to  exist 
in  different  parts  of  the  sky,  are  known  as  nebulas 
(clouds)  or  " fire-mists."  They  are  generally  divided 
into  two  distinct  classes,  the  green  nebulas,  and  the 
white  nebulas.  Their  chemical  composition  is  thought 
to  be  very  simple,  and  their  extent  is  known  to  be 
colossal.  So  vast  are  they  that  many  of  them  cover 
billions  of  times  the  space  occupied  by  the  solar  system. 
Furthermore  they  are  so  extremely  tenuous  that  they 
appear  merely  as  faint  spots  of  haze  against  the  back- 
ground of  the  sky. 

Nebulae  of  a  greenish  tint  are  found  to  be  entirely 
in  a  gaseous  condition,  being  composed  of  an  unknown 
element  named  "nebulium, "  with  which  hydrogen  and 
helium  are  associated.  They  were  discovered  as  such 
by  Sir  William  Huggins  in  1864,  and  give  a  spectrum, 
a  discontinuous  one,  consisting  only  of  a  few  bright 
lines,  chiefly  green  and  blue,  characteristic  of  the  lighter 
gases.  The  wonderful  and  conspicuous  Orion  nebula  is 
a  striking  representative  of  this  class.  Only  a  small 
minority  of  nebulae,  however,  are  green  or  gaseous 
nebulae — bright-line  nebulae — and  these  tend  to  con- 
gregate in  and  near  the  Milky  Way,  most  conveniently 
considered  as  the  equator  of  the  skies. 

White  nebulae,  such  as  the  well-known  spiral  in  the 
girdle  of  Andromeda,  give  a  faint,  so-called  continuous 
spectrum,  without  dark  lines,  which  denotes  that  they 
are  composed  either  of  gas  under  heavy  pressure  or 
great  heat,  or  of  something  in  a  solid  or  liquid  state. 
The  great  majority  of  nebulas  belong  to  this  class,  and 


Nebulse  229 

while  distributed  on  either  side  of  the  Milky  Way,  they 
are  rather  remote  from  certain  stretches  of  it,  and  crowd 
toward  the  northern  galactic  pole.  In  some  regions  of 
the  sky  nebulae  are  more  plentiful  than  stars,  while  in 
others  they  seem  to  be  entirely  absent.  Many  thou- 
sands of  them  exist,  and  about  ten  thousand  have  been 
catalogued. 

Serving  somewhat  as  a  connecting  link  between 
nebulas  and  the  finished  product  are  the  so-called 
nebulous  stars — stars  buried  in  the  depths  of  a  faint 
nebulous  haze.  Their  spectra  show  broader  hydrogen 
and  helium  lines  than  the  gaseous  nebulae,  indicating 
that  the  gases  are  hotter  and  more  condensed.  Such 
nebulous  stars  are  to  be  found  in  the  Pleiades  group, 
and  in  those  connected  with  the  Great  Nebula  in  Orion. 

Far  beyond  Orion  bright 
Cloud  on  cloud  the  star-haze  lies; 
Million  years  bear  down  the  light 
Earthward  from  those  ghost-like  eyes. 

FRANCIS  T.  PALGRAVE 

Nebulae  are  of  various  shapes,  and,  in  certain  cases, 
seem  to  be  involved  in  a  vast  whirlpool  motion.  Some 
two  or  three  of  them  are  bright  enough  to  be  visible  to 
the  naked  eye,  while  a  few  are  within  the  range  of 
small  instruments.  The  majority,  however,  are  so  far 
off,  that  only  an  inadequate  view  can  be  had  of  them, 
even  with  the  highest  optical  aid.  Some  nebulae,  the 
so-called  planetary  nebulae,  are  small  roundish  or 
slightly  oval  objects,  looking  like  ill-defined  planets, 
and  are  of  about  uniform  brightness  throughout.  The 
largest  and  finest  representative  of  this  class  is  known 
as  the  Owl  Nebula  in  Ursa  Major  (Plate  IV.),  a  few 
degrees  from  Merak.  Others,  like  the  Andromeda 


230  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Nebula  (Plate  XV.),  are  elliptical,  while  a  few,  like  the 
so-called  Ring  Nebula  in  Lyra  (Plate  VII.),  are  annular, 
with  a  central  condensation  somewhat  resembling  a 
faint  star.  There  are  also  nebulas  of  irregular  form, 
the  most  notable  being  the  Great  Nebula  in  Orion 
(Plate  XVIII.) ,  the  Trifid  Nebula  in  Sagittarius,  and  the 
Dumb-bell  Nebula  in  Vulpecula  (Plate  VI 1 1.),  a  small 
and  inconspicuous  asterism  north  of  the  Dolphin.  Neb- 
ulas which  more  or  less  resemble  in  appearance  the 
telescopic  comets  have  been  termed  comet ary  nebulae. 
There  are,  in  addition,  a  number  of  double  nebulas,  and 
a  few  that  are  variable  in  brightness,  the  Trifid  Nebula, 
above  mentioned,  being  a  notable  variable. 

The  great  majority  of  nebulae,  it  is  believed,  have  a 
spiral  form,  the  one  best  showing  its  spiral  nature  being 
the  famous  Whirlpool  Nebula  of  Lord  Rosse,  in  Canes 
Venatici,  the  Hunting  Dogs.  Spectroscopical  investiga- 
tions have  shown  that  spiral  nebula  generally  exhibit 
the  spectra  of  the  white  class,  and  yet  bright  lines  due 
to  glowing  gases  are  sometimes  seen.  Almost  invari- 
ably, they  consist  of  a  bright,  rapidly  rotating,  disk- 
shaped,  central  portion,  from  which  radiate  two  great 
spiraljflaming  arms  on  opposite  sides,  like  the  streamers 
from  a  spinning  pin-wheel,  extending  outwards  to  the 
limits  of  the  spiral.  They  are  much  denser  toward  the 
centre,  and  along  and  in  the  arms  of  the  spiral  are 
bright  knots,  that  look  as  if  the  nebulous  matter  were 
there  condensing  into  stars,  as  clouds  condense  into 
drops,  though  no  telescope  has  ever  resolved  these 
nebular  knots  or  points  of  condensation  into  true  stars. 
Professor  Perrine  of  the  Lick  Observatory  considered 
that  with  the  Crossley  reflector  upwards  of  half  a 
million  spirals  were  visible. 

The  first   successful  photograph  of  a  nebula — the 


Double  Stars  231 

nebula  in  Orion — was  made  in  1880  by  Dr.  Henry 
Draper  at  Hastings-on-Hudson,  N.  Y.  En  passant,  it 
may  be  noted  that,  up  to  the  present,  the  finest  nebular 
photographs  have  been  made  with  reflecting  telescopes. 

Double  and  Multiple  Stars 

While  to  the  naked  eye  most  stars  appear  single, 
many  are  found  by  telescopic  or  spectroscopic  aid  to  be 
double,  triple,  quadruple,  or  multiple  stars.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  one  out  of  every  six  stars  is  a 
double  or  multiple  star,  though,  according  to  Campbell 
of  the  Lick  Observatory,  a  much  larger  percentage  of 
stars  will  be  found  thus  split  up.  In  some  cases  stars 
appear  double,  seeming  in  fact  to  almost  touch  each 
other,  because  they  happen  to  lie,  like  the  street  lamps 
in  nearly  the  same  line  of  vision,  and  yet  one  of  the  two 
components  may  be  a  vast  distance  beyond  the  other. 
Stars  which  thus  appear  double  by  the  accident  of 
perspective,  and  are  not  actually  associated,  are  called 
optical  doubles.  Only  a  small  portion  of  the  stars, 
however,  have  proved  to  be  really  optical  doubles. 
Certain  stars,  such  as  Mizar,  Alpha  Capricorni,  Zeta 
Ceti,  and  Epsilon  Lyras,  appear  to  be  double,  even 
when  viewed  with  the  unaided  eye,  and  are  loosely 
called  double  stars.  Then,  too,  some  true  doubles  are 
sufficiently  "wide"  to  be  easily  divided  by  a  prism 
binocular.  Astronomers,  however,  do  not  consider 
a  star  double  unless  a  telescope  is  required  to  separate 
its  components.  Generally,  it  may  be  said,  a  star  whose 
components  are  less  than  three  minutes  apart  cannot 
be  divided  without  optical  aid. 

Those  stars  which  stand  close  together,  and  form  an 
actual  physical  system,  (like,  for  instance,  the  moon  and 


232  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  earth),  and  can  be  separated  with  the  telescope,  are 
physical  doubles,  and  are  called  visual  or  telescopic 
binaries.  They  revolve  round  their  common  centre  of 
gravity  in  elliptical  orbits,  at  distances  which,  though 
limited,  cover  many  hundred  million  miles.  As  far  as 
at  present  known,  their  periods  range  from  about  five 
years  to  nearly  sixteen  hundred  years  or  more.  They 
have  been  plentifully  found  in  every  part  of  the  sky. 
Moreover,  many  of  the  brightest  stars  in  the  heavens 
are  binary  stars.  Among  the  most  celebrated  are 
Alpha  Centauri,  Gamma  Virginis,  and  Sirius.  About 
thirteen  thousand  are  recorded  in  Burnham's  great 
catalogue  of  double  stars,  and  the  number  is  fast  in- 
creasing. Such  dual  systems  as  started  as  companions, 
not  by  direct  collision  but  by  tidal  division,  are  looked 
upon  as  twin  suns.  In  a  large  proportion  of  cases  the 
two  components  are  nearly  equal  in  light-giving  power, 
the  companion  stars  being  frequently  blue  and  green. 
Not  infrequently,  however,  the  components  are  very 
unequal,  a  mighty  star,  it  may  be,  being  coupled  up 
with  a  comparatively  small  one,  in  which  case  they 
often  exhibit  most  beautifully  contrasting  colours. 
Among  them  may  be  found  pairs  of  cherry-red  and 
green,  of  orange  and  sapphire  blue,  of  yellow  and  rose- 
red,  of  orange  and  purple,  of  orange  and  lilac,  of  yellow 
and  white,  of  white  and  purple,  of  white  and  blue,  of 
pale  green  and  blue,  and  so  on.  Perhaps  the  most 
beautiful  examples  of  the  diversity  of  colours  are 
Gamma  in  Andromeda,  Beta  in  Cygni,  Epsilon  in 
Bootes,  Eta  in  Cassiopeia,  and  Iota  in  Cancer. 

The  shortest  period  for  a  visual  or  telescopic  binary 
is  that  of  the  fourth-magnitude  star,  Delta  Equulei, 
which  has  a  fifth-magnitude  companion,  the  swiftly 
circling  pair  completing  their  revolution  in  5.7  years. 


Multiple  Stars  233 

The  well-known  double  star  Castor  has  a  period  of  347 
years  and  Zeta  Aquarii  one  of  about  750  years.  Then, 
too,  there  are  many  binaries  which  probably  take 
thousands  of  years  to  complete  a  revolution.  The  first 
star  ever  discovered  to  be  double  was  Mizar,  the  star 
in  the  bend  of  the  handle  of  The  Dipper,  and  really  a 
compound  star,  in  1650;  and  the  first  to  be  discovered 
telescopically  as  consisting  of  two  stars  close  together 
was  Gamma  Arietis,  in  1664;  while  the  first  binary  to 
have  its  orbit  satisfactorily  computed  was  Xi  Ursae 
Majoris,  its  period  of  revolution  being  about  sixty 
years. 

Again,  there  are  some  stars  which  comprise  so  many 
constituents  that  they  can  best  be  described  as  multi- 
ples, cases  where  the  telescope  splits  up  an  apparently 
single  star  into  three,  four,  or  sometimes  six  or  seven 
separate  stars,  some  of  which  may  be  dark  bodies,  even 
larger  than  the  lucent  ones.  One  of  the  best  known  of 
these  multiple  stars  is  Theta  Orionis,  the  star  in  the 
nebula  in  the  sword  of  Orion,  which  splits  up  into  six 
components.  Moreover,  Epsilon  Lyrse,  a  faint  star 
on  the  frame  of  the  lyre,  close  to  the  brilliant  Vega, 
divides  into  seven  stars;  while  Sigma  Orionis,  a  star 
immediately  below  the  lowermost  star  of  the  giant's 
belt,  splits  up,  in  a  three-inch  telescope,  into  six  tiny 
dots  of  light.  A  star  with  eight  components  has  been 
discovered  in  Lepus,  and  Burnham  mentions  one  with 
sixteen  components — a  veritable  stellar  family. 

Furthermore,  there  exists  a  class  of  stars  which 
always  appear  single,  even  in  the  largest  telescopes,  and 
whose  duplicity  can  be  detected  only  by  means  of 
the  spectroscope.  Such  stars  are  called  spectroscopic 
binaries.  Over  three  hundred  such  binaries  are  now 
known,  and  new  pairs  are  being  rapidly  revealed.  The 


234  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

orbits  of  more  than  seventy  have  been  fairly  well 
determined,  showing  periods  of  revolution  ranging  from 
less  than  five  hours  up  to  nearly  two  and  a  third  years. 
The  distances  between  the  two  components  vary  from 
fifty  thousand  to  nearly  one  hundred  and  five  million 
miles.  Hence  it  is  apparent  that  the  spectroscopic  bi- 
naries are  the  fastest  revolving  couples.  The  transition 
from  multiple  or  compound  stars  to  closely  grouped 
masses  of  stars  called  clusters  is  both  a  gradual  and 
a  natural  one.  A  few  star-clusters  are  resolvable  to  the 
naked  eye,  but  most  of  them  require  a  telescope  to  show 
the  separate  stars,  though  the  instrument  need  not,  in 
all  cases,  be  one  of  high  power.  Most  of  the  telescopic 
clusters  are  family  groups  like  the  double,  triple,  and 
multiple  stars.  They  ordinarily  cover  an  area  of  sky 
rather  less  than  the  average  apparent  size  of  the  moon. 
Three  of  the  most  beautiful  clusters  were  noticed  and 
recorded  by  the  ancients;  namely,  the  well-known 
naked-eye  group  of  the  Pleiades,  the  scattered  group 
of  the  Hyades,  and  the  very  effective,  but  fainter  group 
Prassepe,  long  called  the  Beehive.  Another  somewhat 
scattered  group  of  very  faint  stars  is  the  small  cluster 
called  Berenice's  Hair.  Perhaps  the  finest  of  all  irregu- 
lar star-clusters  is  that  situated  in  the  sword-hand  of 
Perseus,  and  sometimes  called  "Chi  Persei. ''  And, 
again,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  even  the  sun 
itself  is  a  member  of  a  rather  open  cluster  of  perhaps 
one  hundred  stars. 

Throughout  the  heavens  there  are  many  so-called 
globular  clusters,  the  grandest  being  those  in  Hercules, 
Centaurus,  and  Toucan,  in  which  thousands  of  minute 
stars  are  closely  packed  together.  There  are  over  one 
hundred  star-clusters  now  known,  the  finest  being  in 
the  southern  hemisphere.  A  remarkable  group  in  the 


Variable  Stars  235 

Southern  Cross  is  composed  of  1 10  stars,  seven  of  which 
only  exceed  the  tenth  magnitude;  among  the  principal 
ones  of  this  number,  two  are  red,  two  green,  one  green- 
ish-blue, and  three  others  are  pale  green.  So  beautiful 
were  the  colours  of  this  cluster  that  the  great  astrono- 
mer, Sir  John  Herschel,  named  it  the"  Jewelled  Cluster." 

Variable  Stars 

A  remarkable  peculiarity  of  a  large  number  of  the 
stars  is  to  alter  their  brightness,  either  periodically  or 
irregularly.  All  that  thus  change  their  brightness  more 
or  less  are  called  Variable  Stars,  or  Variables.  Until 
near  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  but  little 
attention  was  paid  to  them.  Now,  more  than  a  thou- 
sand variables  are  known,  and  perhaps  three  thousand 
more  are  comprised  within  star-clusters,  while  new 
members  are  constantly  being  discovered.  Among  the 
clusters  that  abound  in  variables  are  the  Omega 
cluster  in  Centaurus,  the  clusters  13  M  in  Hercules, 
3  M  in  the  Hunting  Dogs,  and  5  M  in  Libra.  It  is  even 
thought  by  some  that  all  the  stars,  including  the  sun, 
are  more  or  less  variable.  Their  study  is  of  more  than 
ordinary  interest  to  the  amateur  observer,  possessed  of 
good  eyesight  and  the  average  amount  of  perseverance. 
Many  variables  are  easily  observed  at  maximum,  and 
some  even  at  minimum,  without  optical  aid  of  any 
kind.  Some  are  visible  in  a  good  opera-glass  or  prism 
binocular,  while  others  need  a  two-and-a-half  or  three- 
inch  telescope.  Fine  and  quite  accurate  results  can  be 
obtained  by  the  amateur  in  this  most  fascinating  line 
of  work  with  a  three-inch  glass  or  larger.  Here,  as  in 
other  branches  of  astronomy,  photography  has  been 
employed  with  marked  success,  not  a  few  of  the 


236  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

variables  (including  a  number  of  insignificant  ones) 
discovered  in  recent  years  having  been  found  by  the 
study  of  photographic  star-charts. 

Following  the  Harvard  method  of  observing  variable 
stars  the  observer  may  select  a  sequence  of  comparison 
stars  for  each  variable,  entering  their  photometric 
magnitude  to  the  nearest  tenth  on  a  chart  arranged  for 
the  purpose.  From  the  position  of  the  variable,  as 
noted  on  a  star-atlas,  the  star  can  be  soon  located  by 
the  telescope.  Once  it  is  identified,  the  observation  of 
the  variable  consists  in  estimating  the  magnitude  by  the 
so-called  method  of  relative  comparison — comparing  it 
with  a  brighter  and  then  with  a  fainter  star. 

The  American  Association  of  Variable  Star  Observers, 
recently  formed,  will  tend  to  foster  an  earnest  co-opera- 
tion in  this  special  line  of  observational  work. 

Regarding  the  behaviour  of  a  variable,  it  has  been 
observed  that  the  longer  its  period,  the  less  is  it  dis- 
posed to  follow  regular  laws,  and  that  the  shorter  its 
period,  the  more  precisely  does  it  repeat  its  remarkable 
light  changes. 

In  one  type  of  variables,  known  as  long-period  vari- 
ables, it  will  be  found  that  the  periods  of  the  stars  are 
long  and  irregular,  sometimes  varying  considerably. 
None  of  the  periods  exceed  two  years,  the  majority 
cover  about  one  year,  and  none  are  less  than  two 
months.  Moreover,  the  maxima  and  the  minima  are 
apt  to  be  more  or  less  irregular;  and  the  time  from 
minimum  to  maximum  is  usually  shorter  than  from 
maximum  to  minimum.  Then,  too,  long-period  vari- 
ables quite  characteristically  show  a  rather  ruddy  light, 
especially  when  fading.  The  longer  their  period,  the 
more  red  is  their  light.  A  remarkable  representative  of 
this  class  is  known  as  Omicron  Ceti,  or  Mira,  the  won- 


Variable  Stars  237 

derful  star  of  Cetus.  It  has  been  under  observation  for 
over  three  hundred  years,  having  been  first  seen  by  Fab- 
ricius,  a  Dutch  observer,  in  1596.  It  is  a  most  noted  ob- 
ject, and  is  the  first  variable  star  ever  recognised  as  such. 
Its  average  period  is  about  331!  days,  in  the  course  of 
which  it  increases  from  the  ninth  to  about  the  third  mag- 
nitude, and  then  declines  again  to  invisibility.  Its 
period,  however,  is  subject  to  various  irregularities. 
Furthermore,  sometimes  at  its  maximum  it  is  much 
more  brilliant  than  at  other  times,  occasionally,  as  in 
December,  1906,  exceeding  the  second  magnitude  in 
brightness.  It  is  estimated  that  at  a  bright  maximum 
it  emits  fifteen  hundred  times  as  much  light  as  at  a  low 
minimum.  Its  variations,  as  also  those  of  long-period 
variables  generally,  remain  as  yet  without  any  com- 
pletely satisfactory  explanation.  The  general  idea  nowa- 
days is  that  they  lie  in  the  star  itself,  and  may  be  due 
to  the  instability  of  light,  as  a  result  of  advancing  age. 
The  majority  of  variables  belong  to  this — the  Mira 
Ceti — class. 

There  is  another  type  of  variables — the  Algol  type — 
which,  at  regular  intervals,  exhibit  a  rapid  diminution 
in  their  light.  There  are  some  eighty  such  "winking" 
stars  now  known,  and  their  periods  range  from  about 
ten  hours  to  nearly  five  days.  Their  variability  is 
believed  to  be  caused  by  a  relatively  dark  companion 
eclipsing  the  bright  star  as  the  two  revolve,  close 
together,  around  their  common  centre  of  gravity.  The 
majority  of  the  stars  of  this  type  are  white  in  colour, 
and  in  most  respects  are  analagous  to  the  spectroscopic 
binaries. 

The  typical  star  is  Beta  Persei — known  as  Algol, 
"the  Demon,"  from  its  " slowly- winking  eye" — whose 
variations  can  be  easily  watched  without  optical  aid. 


238  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  star  Algol  is  the  most  notable  variable  in  the 
heavens,  and,  unlike  Mira  Ceti,  runs  through  its  cycle 
of  variations  not  in  months  but  in  days.  Its  period  has 
been  determined  with  great  exactness,  so  that  its 
minima  of  brightness  admit  of  easy  prediction.  It 
changes  from  the  second  to  the  third  magnitude  and 
back  again  once  in  about  every  three  days  (2  days,  20 
hours,  48  minutes,  and  55  seconds),  and  at  its  period  of 
lowest  brilliancy  loses  about  three-fourths  of  its  light. 
Its  variability  is  apparently  due  to  a  huge,  relatively 
dark  body,  partially  eclipsing  its  light  (just  as  the  sun's 
light  is  cut  off  by  the  moon),  as  the  two  revolve,  at 
close  quarters,  around  a  common  centre  of  gravity,  or 
perhaps  about  another  invisible  body,  in  an  orbit 
turned  edgewise  to  the  earth.  The  distance  of  the 
relatively  dark  star  from  Algol  is  estimated  at  about 
thirty-two  hundred  thousand  miles. 

In  the  stern  of  the  ship  Argo,  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  there  is  an  Algol  variable,  both  components 
of  which  are  bright,  and  are  believed  to  be  circling 
around  each  other  in  actual  contact.  The  period  of 
light  variation  is  estimated  at  about  one  and  a  half 
days. 

A  most  interesting  short-period,  naked-eye  variable 
and  an  easy  telescopic  double  is  the  star  Delta  in 
Cepheus.  It  is  a  typical  example  of  the  Cepheid 
variables,  which,  unlike  the  Algol  variables,  have  no 
period  when  the  brightness  is  constant — the  light 
changes  being  continuous.  It  changes  from  about  the 
third  and  a  half  to  the  fourth  and  a  half  magnitude,  and 
back  again,  in  rather  more  than  five  days  (5  days,  8 
hours,  47  minutes,  and  39  seconds). 

Another  remarkable  short-period  variable  is  the  third 
and  a-half-magnitude  star  Eta  Aquilae,  which  loses 


Variable  Stars  239 

rather  more  than  a  degree  of  its  brightness,  and  recovers 
it  again,  in  a  little  over  seven  days  (7  days,  4  hours,  14 
minutes,  and  4  seconds) .  It  is  believed  to  be  a  spectro- 
scopic  binary,  the  companion  star  being  too  close  to  be 
revealed  by  the  telescope.  Its  variations  are  easily 
followed  with  the  naked  eye.  ' 

Not  less  interesting  are  those  variable  stars  of  short 
period,  closely  related  to  the  Algol  variables,  of  which 
Beta  Lyrae  is  the  best-known  example.  In  this  class 
two  unequal,  self-luminous  stars  appear  to  revolve 
around  each  other  in  a  plane  passing  through  the  earth, 
each  eclipsing  the  other  in  turn  during  their  revolution. 
The  periods  of  these  stars  range  from  thirty  days  down 
to  a  few  hours.  The  type  star,  Beta  Lyrae — a  star  of 
1  'reciprocal  eclipse" — is  a  triple  star  in  a  three-inch 
instrument,  and  an  easy  double  for  a  two-inch.  It  is 
ordinarily  of  the  third  magnitude,  (3.4),  from  which  it 
passes  in  a  period  of  rather  less  than  thirteen  days  (12 
days,  21  hours,  and  47  minutes),  through  two  minima, 
only  the  alternates  of  which  are  equal.  At  one  minimum 
it  fades  to  magnitude  3.9  and  at  the  other  to  4.5.  Its 
variations  are  readily  recognisable  to  the  unaided  eye, 
by  reason  of  its  close  proximity  to  so  bright  a  comparison 
star  as  Gamma  Lyrae. 

Of  the  irregularly  fluctuating  variables,  the  star  Eta 
in  the  keel  of  Argo  is  perhaps  the  most  conspicuous. 
It  is  unquestionably  the  most  erratic  of  all  the  promi- 
tent  variable  stars.  In  the  seventeenth  century  it 
shone  as  a  star  of  the  fourth  magnitude,  and  a  century 
later  as  one  of  the  second  magnitude,  while  in  1837  it 
was  equal  to  Alpha  Centauri  in  brightness.  It  then 
began  to  fade,  but  in  1843  it  again  blazed  up,  and 
reached  the  zero  magnitude*  ranking  next  to  Sirius. 
Since  then  it  has  steadily  declined,  being  at  present 


240  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

of  only  the  seventh  magnitude,  and  hence  invisible 
to  the  naked  eye. 

Temporary  Stars 

Besides  the  variable  stars,  there  are  the  new  or 
temporary  stars  that  have  received  the  name  of  Novce — 
stars  which  occasionally  blaze  out  suddenly,  in  regions 
of  the  sky  where  none  had  been  visible  before,  and  then 
more  or  less  quickly  fade  away,  "as  if  a  beacon  out  in 
the  stellar  depths  had  suddenly  been  fired. "  Such  stars 
are  most  apt  to  break  out  in  the  Milky  Way,  and  are 
characterized  by  a  sudden  rise  to  a  great  maximum, 
which,  notwithstanding  later  possible  increases,  is  never 
again  attained.  The  earliest  of  these  rather  rare  and 
erratic  phenomena  appears  to  have  been  observed  by 
the  Greek  astronomer  Hipparchus  in  134  B.  C.,  and 
which  led  to  the  compilation  of  his  celebrated  catalogue 
of  stars.  Chinese  annals  give  picturesque  account  of  a 
radiant  temporary  star  that  appeared  in  A.  D.  173  in 
Centaurus,  and  remained  visible  for  eight  months.  It 
was  reported  to  have  sparkled  in  five  colours,  and  to 
have  resembled  a  large  bamboo  mat. 

The  most  celebrated  of  temporary  stars,  and  the  first 
of  which  there  is  any  scientific  record,  flashed  out  in 
Cassiopeia  in  1572.  It  was  detected  on  the  evening  of 
November  n,  of  that  year,  by  Tycho  Brahe,  though 
really  discovered  three  months  earlier  by  Schuler  at 
Wittenberg.  It  was  known  as  "Tycho's  Star/'  and 
was  as  bright  as  Venus  at  her  best,  being  seen  distinctly 
in  the  daytime.  It  gradually  waned  until  the  spring 
of  1574,  when  it  disappeared  from  view  and  has  never 
since  been  seen.  It  has  been  fancifully  identified  with 
the  "Star  of  Bethlehem,"  an  assumption,  however, 


Temporary  Stars  241 

without  any  scientific  foundation.  A  similar  star 
appeared  in  the  right  foot  of  Ophiuchus  in  the  fall  of 
1604.  It  was  discovered  by  John  Brunowski,  one  of 
Kepler's  pupils,  and  was  known  as  Kepler's  Star.  It 
was  a  white  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  and  shone 
brighter  than  Jupiter.  Its  radiance  slowly  waned,  and 
vanished  early  in  1606. 

On  May  12,  1866,  a  new  star,  almost  as  bright  as  the 
" Pearl  of  the  Crown"  (Gemma)  itself,  suddenly  ap- 
peared in  Corona  Borealis.  It  soon  faded,  however,  to 
the  ninth  magnitude,  but  is  still  visible  with  telescopes. 
It  was  discovered  by  Birmingham,  and  is  known  as  the 
' '  Blaze  Star  "  of  the  ' '  Northern  Crown. "  It  is  notable 
as  being  the  first  temporary  star  to  be  studied  by  the 
spectroscope. 

In  August,  1885,  a  new  star  °f  the  sixth  magnitude 
flamed  out  in  the  centre  of  the  Andromeda  nebula.  It 
remained  visible  with  telescopes  for  a  few  months,  and 
then  faded  from  view.  Another  temporary  star  was 
discovered  in  January,  1892,  in  Auriga,  by  Dr.  Ander- 
son at  Edinburgh.  At  its  full  brightness,  which  it 
attained  only  gradually,  this  somewhat  historic  Nova, 
was  of  about  the  fourth  magnitude.  In  three  months 
it  had  sunk  to  the  twelfth,  but  brightened  during 
August  to  the  ninth  magnitude,  after  which  it  slowly 
faded  out  into  a  planetary  nebula,  a  destiny  which 
seems  to  await  on  temporary  stars. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  February  22,  1901,  Dr. 
Anderson  discovered  a  brilliant  Nova  not  far  from  the 
celebrated  variable  star  Algol,  in  Perseus.  It  was 
nearly  as  bright  as  Tycho's  Star,  and  was  the  most 
brilliant  new  star  to  appear  since  Kepler's  in  1604.  At 
the  time  of  its  discovery  it  was  of  2.7  magnitude,  but 
within  two  days  it  was  brighter  than  Capella.  Soon, 

16 


242  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

however,  its  radiance  began  to  wane,  and  before  the 
middle  of  April  it  had  sunk  to  the  fifth  magnitude.  It 
flared  up  again  to  almost  the  third  magnitude,  after 
which  it  faded  away,  and  became  lost  to  sight  by  the 
end  of  the  year.  Photographs  taken  with  the  reflecting 
telescopes  at  Lick  and  Yerkes  observatories,  some  six 
months  after  its  discovery,  showed  an  extensive  nebu- 
lous spiral  encircling  the  star.  Later  the  nebulosity 
disappeared,  and  the  phenomenon,  as  it  now  exists,  con- 
sists of  a  tiny  telescopic  star  of  the  twelfth  magnitude. 
The  Nova  first  shone  with  a  bluish- white  light,  which 
later  turned  yellow,  and  finally,  as  its  radiance  decreased, 
became  red.  As  the  star,  according  to  commonly 
accepted  estimate,  is  approximately  three  hundred 
light  years  distant,  the  so-called  collision  which  caused 
the  flare-up  in  1901  actually  occurred  about  the  year 
1600.  It  may  here  be  mentioned,  however,  that  some 
investigations,  notably  those  of  Bergstrand  and  Very, 
differently  place  the  star's  distance  at  from  about 
sixty-five  to  one  hundred  and  thirty  light  years 
only. 

In  March,  1903,  Turner  at  Oxford  discovered  a  new 
star  in  the  constellation  Gemini.  It  was  of  a  crimson 
colour,  and  faded  out  rapidly,  showing  the  usual  tend- 
ency towards  development  into  a  nebula.  Its  spectrum 
indicated  the  presence  of  hydrogen  and  helium.  On 
March  12,  1912,  a  new  star,  called  Enebo's  Nova, 
blazed  out  in  the  same  constellation,  about  two  degrees 
south  of  Theta.  It  was  of  a  creamy -white  colour,  and 
of  about  the  fourth  magnitude,  and  was  easily  visible 
to  the  naked  eye.  Its  brightness  fluctuated  markedly, 
though  on  the  whole  it  diminished  rapidly,  and  its  hue 
deepened  accordingly.  Dark  lines  of  uranium  and 
radium  emanation  were  found  in  its  spectrum.  It  was 


Temporary  Stars  243 

discovered  by  Sigurd  Enebo,  an  observer  of  variables, 
at  Dombas,  Norway. 

It  is  generally  thought  nowadays  that  the  outbursts 
of  temporary  stars  are  the  result  of  some  sort  of  collision, 
although,  as  suggested  by  Barnard,  the  flare-ups  may 
be  produced  by  some  sudden  change  in  the  stars' 
physical  condition  by  forces  inherent  in  the  stars 
themselves. 

Expressed  in  a  general  form,  the  prevailing  idea, 
which  is  a  modification  of  Seeliger's  hypothesis,  is  that 
these  outbursts  are  due  to  obscure  bodies,  extinguished 
suns,  so  to  speak,  encountering  a  vast  invisible  nebula, 
or  wide-spread  meteoric  swarm,  as  they  hurtle  at  almost 
unthinkable  speed  through  space.  Colliding  with  such 
masses  with  tremendous  force,  their  surfaces  are  sud- 
denly raised  to  incandescence,  through  resultant  fric- 
tion, just  as  tiny  shooting  stars  are  ignited  by  dashing 
through  the  earth's  atmosphere.  Furthermore,  the 
nebulous  or  meteoric  matter,  hitherto  dark  and  invisible, 
being  suddenly  lighted  up  by  the  new  blazing  star,  is 
for  the  time  rendered  more  or  less  distinctly  visible. 
As  the  stars  pass  out  of  the  material  with  which  they 
have  collided,  their  brilliant  light  quickly  fades,  inas- 
much as  their  surfaces  only  are  heated  by  the  collision. 
And  again,  the  secondary  flare-ups  that  are  at  times 
observed  in  temporary  stars,  are,  it  is  believed,  due 
to  secondary  collisions  with  invisible  masses  of  nebulous 
or  meteoric  matter. 

During  the  past  twenty-five  years  about  seventeen 
new  stars  have  been  seen,  of  which  no  less  than  four- 
teen have  been  found  by  the  energetic  force  of  Harvard 
College  Observatory. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

STELLAR  DISTANCES 

Behold  the  height  of  the  stars,  how  high  they  are! 

JOB  xxii.,  12. 

IN  measuring  the  distance  of  a  celestial  body,  or,  as 
astronomers  say,  determining  its  parallax,  the  calcula- 
tion may  be  readily  made  by  a  method  similar  to  that 
used  by  surveyors  in  the  measurement  of  terrestrial 
distances.  In  general,  parallax — from  the  Greek 
icapaXXa^t?  a  shift  or  alternation — may  be  defined  as  the 
apparent  displacement  of  an  object  as  a  result  of  the 
change  in  position  of  the  observer.  By  way  of  illustra- 
tion, let  the  observer  hold  his  finger  or  a  pencil,  a  foot  or 
more  in  front  of  him.  Upon  looking  at  it  with  first  one 
eye  and  then  the  other,  he  will  notice  that  it  seems  to 
change  its  position  with  reference  to  any  object  beyond 
it.  Now  this  apparent  change  in  position  of  an  object 
to  its  background,  when  viewed  alternately  from  two 
separate  points,  is  technically  termed  a  parallax. 

In  astronomy,  different  names  have  been  applied  to 
the  parallax  of  a  heavenly  body,  according  to  the  differ- 
ent positions  of  the  observer  or  observers  and  the  body. 
The  geocentric  or  true  place  of  the  moon,  or  any  other 
celestial  body,  is  that  in  which  it  would  be  seen  by  a 
hypothetical  observer  at  the  centre  of  the  earth. 
The  apparent  or  observed  place  is  that  in  which  it  is 

244 


Stellar  Distances  245 

actually  seen  by  a  real  observer  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth.  The  parallax  of  a  body,  called  also  its  geocentric 
or  horizontal  parallax,  is  the  difference  in  direction 
between  its  true  and  apparent  places.  It  is  the  angle 
subtended  (measured)  by  the  semi-diameter  of  the 
earth  from  any  body  of  the  solar  system.  The  angle 
subtended  by  the  earth's  equatorial  semi-diameter  is 
termed  the  equatorial  horizontal  parallax.  The  annual 
or  heliocentric  parallax  is  the  angle  subtended  (measured) 
by  the  semi-diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit,  from  the 
more  distant  fixed  stars. 

In  the  measurement  of  the  distance  of  any  inaccessible 
object,  when  the  base-line,  namely  the  distance  be- 
tween the  points  of  observation,  is  known,  and  also  the 
angles  formed  by  the  lines  of  direction  at  the  opposite 
ends  of  the  base  line,  it  is  easy  to  find  by  simple  trigo- 
nometry the  other  parts  of  the  triangle,  and  to  calculate 
how  far  off  the  object  is.  Applying  this  principle  to 
ascertain  the  distance  of  celestial  bodies,  the  longest 
base-line  that  can  be  obtained  on  earth,  is  about  eight 
thousand  miles — the  diameter  of  the  earth.  A  longer 
line  in  space,  is  the  entire  diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit 
or  about  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  million  miles. 
For  convenience  of  calculation,  astronomers  employ 
the  radius,  or  semi-diameter,  in  either  case  instead  of  the 
whole  diameter  for  a  base-line.  The  semi-diameter,  or 
equatorial  radius,  of  the  earth  is  used  as  a  base-line  for 
measuring  the  distances  of  the  moon  and  nearer  planets, 
and  the  semi-diameter,  or  mean  radius,  of  the  terrestrial 
orbit,  for  measuring  the  distances  of  the  stars. 

A  simple,  though  perhaps  not  the  most  accurate, 
method  for  ascertaining  the  distance  of  the  moon,  the 
nearest  celestial  body  to  the  earth,  consists  in  observing 
that  satellite,  from  widely  separated  points  on  the  earth, 


246  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

but  in  very  nearly  the  same  longitude.  Let  observers 
at  the  two  places  determine  at  the  same  instant,  with  a 
meridian-circle  or  some  equivalent  instrument,  the 
moon's  zenith  distance.  From  the  directions  of  the 
moon  thus  ascertained,  and  the  distance  apart  of 
the  observers,  which  is  known  to  start  with,  it  is  easy 
to  find  by  a  simple  trigonometrical  process  the  moon's 
distance. 

Following  roughly  the  methods  of  Young,   Serviss, 
Poor  and  others,  let  M  in  Fig.  2  represent  the  moon,  A 


zs 

FIG.  2.    The  Measurement  of  the  Moon's  Distance. 

the  location  of  an  observer  in  the  northern  hemisphere, 
B  the  location  of  another  observer  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  and  E  the  centre  of  the  earth.  The  zenith 
of  the  observer  at  A  is  in  the  direction  E  A  Zn,  and  that 
of  the  observer  at  B  in  the  direction  E  B  Zs.  The 
angle  A  E  B  at  the  centre  of  the  earth  is  equal  to  the 
latitude  difference  of  the  observers  at  A  and  B.  The 
sides  A  E  and  B  E  being  radii  of  the  earth,  their  length 
is  known.  Hence  the  angles  E  A  B  and  E  B  A  can  be 
easily  calculated.  Subtracting  these  two  angles  respec- 
tively from  E  A  M  and  E  B  M  gives  the  interior  angles 
M  A  B  and  M  B  A.  And  as  the  length  of  the  side  A  B 
is  already  known,  for  it  is  the  distance  apart  of  the 


Stellar  Distances  247 

two  observers,  the  sides  A  M  and  B  M  can  be  readily 
found. 

Now  in  the  triangle  E  A  M  or  E  B  M,  as  the  two  sides 
and  the  included  angle  are  known,  it  is  easy  to  find  the 
other  parts  of  the  triangle,  and  to  compute  the  distance 
from  the  centre  of  the  earth  to  the  moon,  E  M.  The 
moon's  mean  parallax  is  found  to  be  57.2'  which  corre- 
sponds to  60.3  times  the  earth's  equatorial  radius,  or 
238,840  miles. 

The  foregoing  is  the  simple  method,  on  the  theory 
that  the  earth  is  a  sphere  of  uniform  density.  But  the 
earth  is  not  a  sphere,  nor  is  it  of  uniform  density. 
Therefore,  in  practice,  allowances,  which  are  small,  are 
made  for  these  conditions,  and  thus  proper  values  of 
the  radii  and  angles  are  obtained  for  use  in  the 
computations. 

In  estimating  the  distance  of  the  sun,  as  its  direct 
determination  by  the  measurement  of  the  solar  parallax, 
after  the  manner  of  the  lunar  parallax,  is  practically 
impossible,  other  and  indirect  methods  have  been 
employed.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the 
parallaxes  of  Mars  and  of  some  of  the  planetoids  (de- 
termined best  by  heliometer  observations  or  from  a 
series  of  photographs),  the  transits  of  Venus,  the 
aberration  of  light  (a  phenomenon  which  is  the  result  of 
the  combined  effects  of  the  velocity  of  light  and  of  the 
earth's  orbital  motion) ,  and  various  irregularities  in  the 
motions  of  the  moon,  the  inner  planets,  Venus  and  Mars, 
and  the  planetoid  Eros. 

A  most  simple  method,  easy  to  understand,  is  that 
known  as  Delisle's  method  (Fig.  3)  which  takes  advan- 
tage of  various  observations  of  the  transit  of  Venus 
across  the  sun's  disk,  a  phenomenon  that  last  took 
place  on  December  6,  1882,  and  will  not  occur  again 


248  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

until  June  8,  2004.  At  the  moment  of  transit,  Venus  is 
only  some  26,000,000  miles  from  the  earth,  and  its 
parallactic  displacement  is  over  two  and  a  half  times 
that  of  the  sun. 

Illustrating  Delisle's  method  after  the  manner  of 
Young,  Serviss,  and  others,  let  E  in  Fig.  3  represent 
the  earth,  A  and  B  the  stations  of  two  observers  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  earth,  on  or  near  the  equator, 
and  on  a  line  roughly  parallel  to  the  planet's  motion, 
and  S  the  sun.  The  observer  at  A  notes  the  instant 


FIG.  3.    The  Measurement  of  the  Sun's  Distance. 
(Delisle's  method.) 

at  which  Venus  (then  at  V1)  appears  to  touch  the  sun's 
edge,  while  the  observer  at  B  notes  the  instant  when 
the  planet  is  at  V2.  From  the  time  occupied  in  passing 
from  V1  to  V2,  and  the  known  synodic  period  of  the 
planet  (584  days),  the  size  of  the  angle  A  C  B  may  be 
calculated.  And  as  the  distance  between  A  and  B,  the 
earth's  diameter,  is  already  known,  it  is  easy  to  compute 
the  length  of  other  lines  in  the  triangle,  and  hence  the 
sun's  distance  from  the  earth.  Up  to  within  the  last 
thirty  years,  most  of  the  estimates  for  determining  the 
sun's  distance  were  based  on  transit  of  Venus  observa- 
tions. Now,  however,  since  other  and  more  accurate 
methods  have  come  into  use,  the  transit  has  lost  much 
of  its  former  importance. 


Stellar  Distances  249 

The  best  of  the  geometrical  methods  for  measuring 
the  solar  parallax  is  probably  that  used  by  Gill  in  his 
observations  of  Mars,  on  Ascension  Island  in  1877,  in 
which  all  the  observations  are  made  from  a  single 
station,  by  a  single  observer,  when  the  planet  is  near  its 
rising  and  its  setting  points.  From  the  distance  that 
the  observer  has  been  carried  by  the  rotation  of  the 
earth  on  its  axis  (which  can  be  easily  calculated  from 
the  time  that  has  elapsed  between  the  observations), 
and  the  measured  shift  of  the  planet  among  the  stars, 
the  whole  parallax  may  be  readily  computed,  and 
thence  the  distance  of  the  planet. 

Since  the  discovery  of  Eros  by  Witt  of  Berlin,  in 
1898,  one  of  the  most  important  methods  for  deter- 
mining the  sun's  distance  is  based  on  observations  of 
this  tiny  planetoid,  which  periodically  approaches  much 
nearer  to  the  earth  than  any  other  body  of  the  solar 
system,  except  the  moon.  In  1931,  Eros  will  be  most 
favourably  situated  for  observation,  as  it  will  then 
approach  to  within  some  fifteen  million  miles  of  the 
earth,  which  is  much  nearer  than  Mars  or  Venus  ever 
do.  Knowing  the  distance  of  the  planetoid,  the  dis- 
tance of  the  sun  can  be  readily  calculated,  for  by 
Kepler's  third  law  (page  270)  the  relative  distances  of 
the  different  planets  from  the  sun  are  proportional  to 
their  periods  of  revolution  about  the  sun.  The  latest 
determination  based  on  observations  of  Eros,  at  its 
opposition  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1900-1901, 
places  the  solar  parallax  at  the  value  8 ".807,  which 
corresponds  to  a  distance  of  about  92,820,000  miles. 

And  again,  one  of  the  most  simple  and  striking  of  the 
several  indirect  methods  makes  use  of  the  velocity  of 
light,  which  has  been  determined  with  great  precision 
by  methods  of  measurement  which  will  be  found 


250  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

explained  in  special  treatises  in  physics.  By  observing 
the  eclipses  of  Jupiter's  satellites,  it  has  been  found  that 
light  takes  about  sixteen  minutes,  thirty-six  seconds,  to 
cross  the  terrestrial  orbit,  or  eight  minutes,  eighteen 
seconds  to  reach  the  earth  from  the  sun.  Now,  mul- 
tiplying the  known  velocity  of  light — 186,400  miles  a 
second — by  eight  minutes,  eighteen  seconds,  or  498 
seconds,  gives  approximately  the  sun's  distance. 

In  calculating  the  distance  of  a  star,  its  direction  in 
the  sky  at  epochs  six  months  apart  should  be  accurately 
observed,  the  distance  between  the  points  of  observa- 
tion being  the  mean  diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit. 
From  the  displacement  measured  at  these  intervals  of 
time,  which  is  twice  the  annual  or  heliocentric  parallax, 
the  star's  distance  may  be  computed.  A  paltry  few 
out  of  the  entire  host  of  stars  change  their  apparent 
positions  when  thus  observed,  but  the  changes  are  only 
slight,  no  star  having  been  found  that  alters  its  position 
as  much  as  one  second.  The  great  bulk  of  the  stars  are 
at  such  inconceivable  distances  that  even  the  magnifi- 
cent base-line  of  186,000,000  miles  proves  insufficient,  in 
most  cases,  to  produce  any  perceptible  change  in  their 
direction. 

Within  recent  years  the  fashion  has  been  to  have  the 
measurements  for  the  determination  of  a  star's  distance 
made  with  the  measuring  machine,  upon  a  photographic 
plate  taken  with  a  photographic  telescope.  When  the 
distance  can  be  gauged,  the  star  should,  if  persistently 
watched,  appear  to  oscillate  in  a  yearly  period,  as  the 
earth  moves  round  the  sun.  On  account  of  the  im- 
mense distances  of  even  the  nearer  stars,  the  oscillations 
are,  however,  almost  immeasurably  small.  Knowing 
the  range  of  the  oscillation,  the  distance  of  the  star  is 
immediately  deducible. 


Stellar  Distances  25 1 

The  first  satisfactory  measure  of  a  star's  parallax, 
namely  that  of  61  Cygni,  was  obtained  by  the  Prus- 
sian astronomer  Bessel,  in  1838,  by  means  of  the 
Konigsberg  heliometer.  Since  then  the  actual  distances 
of  some  seventy  odd  stars  have  been  counted,  although 
approximately  correct  parallaxes  have  been  secured  for 
many  more.  From  photographs  made  at  an  interval 
of  seven  or  eight  years  on  the  same  plate,  Kapteyn  and 
De  Sitter  have,  it  is  said,  deduced  the  parallaxes  and 
proper  motions  of  over  three  thousand  stars.  The 
parallax  of  the  visual  binary,  Alpha  Centauri,  the 
nearest  known  star,  which  is  but  0.75  seconds  of  arc, 
and  corresponds  in  round  numbers  to  a  distance  of 
about  twenty-six  million  million  miles,  is  the  largest  yet 
ascertained,  and  was  announced  by  Thomas  Henderson, 
the  great  Scottish  astronomer,  while  employed  as 
the  Astronomer  Royal  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
in  1839. 

Spectrum  Analysis  and  Celestial  Photography 

When  a  narrow  ray  of  sunlight  passes  through  a 
triangular  prism  of  glass  or  of  any  other  transparent 
substance,  it  is  not  only  refracted,  that  is,  bent  from  its 
original  course,  but  is  also  spread  out  lengthwise  into  a 
fan-shaped  band  of  rainbow  colours.  Collected  on  a 
screen  these  primary  or  prismatic  colours,  seven  in 
number,  pass  imperceptibly  from  violet,  which  is 
refracted  the  most,  at  the  one  extremity,  through  indigo, 
blue,  green,  yellow,  and  orange  to  red,  which  is  refracted 
the  least,  at  the  other  end  (Fig.  4).  Beyond  the 
violet  rays,  which  have  the  shortest  wave-length,  are  a 
series  of  shorter  waves  called  the  ultra-violet  (invisible), 
actinic,  or  chemical  rays,  and  beyond  the  red  rays,  which 


252 


The  Call  of  the  Stars 


have  the  longest  wave-length,  are  a  series  of  longer 
waves,  called  the  infra-red  (invisible),  or  dark  heat  rays. 
This  separation  of  white  light  into  its  various  com- 
ponents is  called  dispersion,  and  the  ribbon-like  rain- 
bow-tinted band  called  a  spectrum  is,  when  produced 
by  sunlight,  known  as  the  solar  spectrum. 

Light  from  a  candle  flame,  a  star,  a  nebula,  or  other 


siit 


Red 

Orange 

Yellow 

Green 

Blue 


V'olet 
Screen 

FIG.  4.     The  Dispersion  of  Light  by  the  Prism. 


luminous  object,  will  produce  a  similar  band  or  spectrum, 
but  the  appearance  of  the  band,  with  regard  to  the 
preponderance  of  different  colours,  will  depend  upon 
the  source  and  character  of  the  light.  By  receiving  the 
spectrum  on  a  concave  mirror,  or  by  passing  it  through  a 
convex  lens,  or  through  a  second  prism  reversed,  all  the 
spectrum  colours  may  be  recombined,  so  as  to  form  a 
single  beam  or  band  of  white  light.  When  a  body 
absorbs  all  the  colours  of  the  spectrum  except  one,  but 
reflects  that  colour  to  the  eye,  the  body  is  said  to  be  of 
that  colour,  be  it  blue,  green,  or  other  colour;  if  it  re- 


Spectrum  Analysis  253 

fleets  or  gives  back  all  the  colours  to  the  eye,  it  then 
appears  white. 

As  early  as  1802,  the  celebrated  English  chemist  and 
physicist,  Wollaston,  noticed  that  the  solar  spectrum  is 
crossed  by  numerous  dark  lines,  like  narrow  gaps,  of 
various  thicknesses,  and  at  irregular  distances  from 
each  other.  Later  in  1814,  these  lines  were  carefully 
studied  and  mapped  by  Josef  von  Fraunhofer,  an 
eminent  optician  of  Munich,  and  are  therefore  called 
Fraunhofer1  s  lines.  On  a  tombstone,  erected  to  the 
memory  of  the  scientist  in  a  Munich  graveyard,  is  this 
epitaph :  "  He  brought  the  stars  nearer  to  us. " 

The  real  meaning  of  Fraunhofer's  lines  remained  a 
mystery ,  until  1859,  when  a  German  physicist,  KirchhofT, 
discovered  the  secret  (namely,  that  these  dark  lines 
indicate  the  presence  of  certain  substances  in  the  sun), 
and  opened  up  a  new  and  exact  method  of  investiga- 
tion, since  known  as  Spectrum  Analysis — recently 
voted  the  sixth  wonder  of  the  modern  world. 

Three  principles  were  announced  by  Kirchhoff  as 
underlying  the  theory  of  spectrum  analysis:  The  first 
principle  or  law  is,  that  a  solid  or  a  liquid  body,  or  a 
gas  under  high  pressure,  gives,  when  incandescent,  a 
plain  or  continuous  spectrum — a  coloured  band  of  light 
devoid  of  lines. 

The  second  principle  or  law  is,  that  incandescent  gas 
under  low  pressure  gives  a  discontinuous  spectrum — 
a  spectrum  made  up  of  bright-coloured  lines  on  a  dark 
background,  the  colour,  position,  and  number  of  the 
lines  being  dependent  on  the  nature  and  constituents  of 
the  gas. 

The  third  principle  or  law  is,  that  if  the  light  from  a 
body  giving  a  discontinuous  spectrum  has  to  pass 
through  a  layer  of  gas  having  a  lower  temperature,  the 


254  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

gas  will  absorb  rays  of  identical  colour  or  wave-length 
with  those  composing  its  own  bright-line  spectrum, 
dark  lines,  or  gaps — the  Fraunhofer  lines — replacing  the 
characteristic  bright  lines  in  the  spectrum  of  the  gas 
itself.  Spectra  of  this  kind  are  styled  absorption  or 
dark-line  spectra. 

The  spectroscope,  an  instrument  devised  for  the 
production  and  study  of  spectra,  and  which  was  first 
applied  to  astronomical  observation  about  1864, 
consists,  as  usually  constructed,  of  three  parts — a 
collimator,  a  dispersion  piece  (either  prism  or  grating), 
and  a  view-telescope.  The  collimator  or  small  tele- 
scope has  a  narrow  adjustable  slit,  through  which  the 
ray  of  light  enters,  at  one  end,  and  a  double  convex 
lens  so  placed  at  the  other  end  that  the  light  will  pass 
from  the  collimator  in  parallel  lines.  The  prism,  or 
diffraction  grating,  effects  the  dispersion  necessary  to 
produce  a  spectrum,  and  the  small  view-telescope  is  of 
use  in  examining  the  different  regions  of  the  spectrum. 
To  the  amateur  a  pocket  spectroscope,  such  as  Brown- 
ing's, is  highly  useful. 

The  power  of  the  spectroscope  may  be  increased  by 
adding  to  the  number  of  the  prisms,  or  in  other  words 
using  a  train  of  prisms.  Not  infrequently  the  prisms 
are  replaced  by  ruled  gratings,  the  spectrum  given  by 
which  is  called  the  normal  spectrum,  because  the  amount 
of  dispersion  of  the  rays  is  proportional  to  their  wave- 
lengths. The  diffraction  grating,  invented  by  Rowland 
in  1883,  consists  of  very  fine  parallel  equidistant  lines, 
from  five  thousand  to  twenty  thousand  to  the  inch, 
ruled  on  glass  or  on  speculum  metal.  From  such 
gratings  spectra  of  wide  dispersion  are  obtainable. 

For  the  study  of  that  class  of  spectroscopic  binaries, 
to  which  Mizar,  the  larger  component  of  the  well- 


Spectrum  Analysis  255 

known  double  star  in  the  tail  of  the  Greater  Bear, 
belongs,  in  which  the  lines  of  the  spectrum  periodically 
double  and  undouble  themselves,  the  slitless  or  objec- 
tive-prism spectroscope  has  been  found  particularly 
effective.  The  spectroheliograph,  a  still  further  devel- 
opment of  the  spectroscope,  devised  by  Hale  in  1892  for 
the  purpose  of  photographing  the  solar  prominences, 
permits  of  photographs  being  taken  of  the  sun  with  the 
light  of  one  element  at  a  time,  and  by  its  means  a 
composite  photograph  of  the  entire  solar  surface  can 
be  built  up. 

By  means  of  the  spectroscope  the  astronomer  is 
enabled  to  determine,  from  certain  shifting  of  the  lines 
in  the  spectrum,  the  direction  and  rate  of  a  star's 
radial  motion,  that  is,  its  motion  in  the  line  of  sight.  If 
the  lines  are  displaced  toward  the  violet  end  of  the 
spectrum,  the  star  is  approaching,  and  if  toward  the  red 
end,  it  is  receding,  the  rate  of  speed,  which  is  propor- 
tional to  the  amount  of  displacement,  being  readily 
calculated  by  laws  of  optics.  Then,  too,  the  spectro- 
scope has  given  the  means  of  studying  many  interesting 
features  on  the  sun,  and  has  shown,  from  their  character- 
istic spectral  lines,  that  forty  or  more  of  the  elements 
known  on  earth  are  present  in  a  gaseous  or  vaporous 
state  in  the  sun. 

In  addition,  it  has  revealed  that  many  of  the  terres- 
trial elements  are  present  as  glowing  vapours  in  the 
gaseous  envelopes  of  the  distant  stars,  that  the  greenish, 
bright-line  nebulae  are  masses  of  incandescent  gases, 
and  that  throughout  space,  matter  is  essentially  the 
same.  With  its  help  it  has  been  possible  to  estimate  the 
age  of  a  star,  to  tell  if  it  was  young,  or  at  full  radiance,  or 
past  its  prime,  or  perchance  on  its  way  to  extinction. 
It  has  revealed  that  the  inner  parts  of  Saturn's  rings 


256  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

rotate  faster  than  the  outer  ones.  Then,  too,  it  has 
rendered  it  possible  to  recognise  as  double,  certain  stars 
— spectroscopic  binaries — which  even  the  most  powerful 
telescopes  have  failed  to  separate. 

Within  recent  years  the  studies  of  the  spectra  of  stars, 
nebulae,  and  other  celestial  objects  have  been  made 
almost  wholly  by  photography,  the  camera  being  ad- 
justed to  the  telescope,  and  the  object  photographed 
being  examined  and  measured  in  detail  at  leisure. 
The  photographic  plate  has  rendered  it  possible  to 
portray  star-clouds  and  extensive  nebulas,  and  to 
determine  the  positions  of  stars  with  an  accuracy  that 
would  be  otherwise  unattainable.  It  has  recorded  the 
existence  of  numerous  faint  and  far-off  stars,  which  have 
never  been  seen  by  simple  visual  observations  with 
even  the  largest  telescopes.  It  has  assisted  in  picking 
out  the  tiny  planetoids,  and  in  the  discovery  of  the 
minute  moons  in  the  vicinity  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn. 
Then,  too,  on  the  photographic  plate  the  whole  moon  has 
been  pictured  with  an  accuracy  far  beyond  anything 
possible  by  manual  drawing. 

The  first  photograph,  or  rather  daguerreotype,  of  a 
celestial  object  was  one  of  the  moon,  secured  by  Dr. 
J.  W.  Draper  of  New  York  in  1840,  while  the  first 
photograph  of  a  star  was  that  of  Vega,  taken  at  Har- 
vard College  Observatory  in  1850  under  the  direction 
of  the  elder  Bond  (William  Cranch).  The  first  photo- 
graph, or  rather  daguerreotype,  of  a  solar  eclipse  was 
made  in  1851  by  Dr.  Busch  at  Konigsberg,  and  the  first 
photograph  of  a  solar  prominence  was  obtained  by 
Young  with  the  old  wet-plate  process,  in  1870.  In 
1872,  Dr.  Henry  Draper,  the  son  of  Dr.  J.  W.  Draper, 
secured  the  first  photograph  of  the  spectrum  of  a  star, 
and  in  1880,  the  first  successful  photograph  of  a  nebula. 


Part  II 
The  Sun  and  the  Planets 


257 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PLANETESIMAL  HYPOTHESIS,  AND  OTHERS 

That  very  law  which  moulds  a  tear 
And  bids  it  trickle  from  its  source, — 
That  law  preserves  the  earth  a  sphere, 
And  guides  the  planets  in  their  course. 

SAMUEL  ROGERS. 

To  the  unassisted  eye  the  most  beautiful  and  interest- 
ing objects  in  all  the  heavens  are  found  among  the 
radiant  wandering  bodies  called  planets  (from  the 
Greek  word  xXavTQTY)?  the  wanderer),  which  have  a 
proper  motion  of  their  own  among  the  stars.  Held  by 
gravitational  influence  from  travelling  away  into  space, 
these  bodies  revolve  substantially  in  one  plane,  at 
varying  distances,  and  at  varying  rates,  from  west  to 
east,  in  orbits  of  various  degrees  of  eccentricity,  around 
a  great  central  globular  mass,  the  Sun,  the  nearest  of 
the  stars.  That  limited  portion  of  the  universe,  a  little 
under  fifty-six  hundred  million  miles  across,  occupied 
by  the  Sun  and  its  eight  large  planets  with  their  twenty- 
six  satellites,,  together  with  about  eight  hundred  tiny 
planets,  called  planetoids  or  asteroids,  and  a  whole 
number  of  cometary  and  meteoric  bodies,  so  largely 
isolated  from  all  the  other  systems  of  the  universe,  is 
known  as  the  " local**  Solar  System. 

It  is  now  thought  probable  that  before  there  were  any 
planets  at  all  or  any  sun,  there  existed  a  comparatively 

259 


26o  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

small,  flat,  rapidly  rotating  spiral  nebula,  out  of  which 
in  the  lapse  of  indefinite  ages  the  solar  system  was 
evolved.  According  to  the  Chamberlin-Moulton  the- 
ory, put  forth  in  1905 — the  most  satisfactory  theory 
yet  advanced  in  regard  to  the  origin  and  development 
of  the  solar  system,  and  known  as  the  Planetesimal  or 
Accretionary  Hypothesis — the  primal  spiral  nebula 
was  formed,  millions  of  years  ago,  by  the  grazing1 
collision  or  the  near  approach  (within  Roche's  limit 
of  about  2^  diameters)  of  a  great,  dark,  solid  body,  an 
extinguished  sun,  with  another  body  as  it  hurtled 
incognito  through  the  icy  regions  of  space.  In  the  spin- 
ning nebulous  mass  formed  as  a  result  of  the  cata- 
clysmic shattering  of  the  bodies,  brought  about  by  their 
terrific  impact,  or  through  their  disruptive  tidal  influ- 
ence on  each  other,  the  matter,  it  is  held,  was  very 
diffuse  at  the  outer  edge  of  the  irregular  spiral,  and 
densest  in  the  centre,  while  scattered  here  and  there 
along  and  in  the  two  fiery,  coiled  arms,  projecting 
from  diametrically  opposite  sides  of  the  whirling 
figure,  so  noticeable  in  almost  all  spiral  nebulas,  knots 
or  spots  of  condensation  appeared. 

In  the  process  of  evolution,  the  denser  globular 
centre  became  the  controlling  sun,  the  mighty  ruler  of 
the  system,  and  the  nebular  knots  or  local  condensa- 
tions on  the  arms  of  the  spiral  separated  from  the 
parent  mass  as  the  nuclei  of  the  individual  planets 
that  were  to  be.  These  planet  nuclei  continued  to 
revolve  about  the  original  centre,  and  in  proportion 
to  their  mass  gathered  in  by  gravitative  attraction 
more  or  less  of  the  scattered  material — wandering 

1  It  is  held  by  Bickerton  and  others  that  the  collision  could  not  be 
other  than  a  grazing  collision,  as,  under  the  laws  of  attraction,  such 
bodies  can  never  meet  centre  to  centre. 


The  Planetesimal  Hypothesis          261 

planetesimals  or  fragments — that  chanced  to  pass  near 
their  orbits.  Such  condensations  of  matter  on  the 
arms  of  the  spiral  as  happened  to  be  of  good  size  at 
the  time  of  separation  from  the  parent  mass,  gathered 
up  large  quantities  of  the  small  and  slow-moving 
particles  of  ejected  matter  which  the  region  afforded, 
and  thus  developed  by  aggregation  into  large  planets. 
Nuclei  located  near  the  outer  edge  of  the  spiral,  and 
which  formed  the  outer  or  the  major  planets,  were 
composed  of  the  lighter  material  of  the  nebula,  while 
such  as  were  nearer  the  centre,  and  formed  the  inner 
or  the  terrestrial  planets,  were  composed  of  the  denser 
material. 

In  some  instances,  the  planet  nuclei  at  the  time  of 
separation  from  the  parent  body  picked  up  and  carried 
away  with  them,  to  become  their  satellites,  such  of  the 
smaller  condensations  of  the  widely  distributed  matter 
— secondary  nuclei — as  were  swift  of  motion  and  were 
far  enough  away  from  the  original  centre  to  remain 
under  their  gravitational  control.  And  again,  shape- 
less fragments  of  matter  destined  to  form  tiny  worlds, 
called  planetoids  or  asteroids,  whirled  in  irregular 
orbits,  in  the  vast  space  between  the  two  widely 
different  groups  of  planets — the  inner  and  the  outer — 
where,  by  gravitative  influence  of  one  of  the  larger 
planets  (Jupiter),  condensation  was  disturbed,  and  no 
large  body  was  allowed  to  form.  Whilst  left-over  bits 
of  matter— the  "last  ungathered  remains"  of  the 
primal  nebula — perchance,  formed  those  small  celestial 
objects  called  comets  and  shooting  stars,  which  journey 
in  orbits  of  every  degree  of  eccentricity,  and  are  part 
and  parcel  of  the  solar  system. 

In  a  recent  book  on  The  Evolution  of  Worlds,  by 
Percival  Lowell,  it  is  suggested  that, 


262  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

What  brought  about  the  beginning  of  the  system  may 
also  [in  default  of  other  causes]  compass  its  end.  If  one 
random  encounter  took  place  in  the  past,  a  second  is  as 
likely  to  occur  in  the  future.  Another  celestial  body  may 
any  day  run  into  the  Sun,  and  it  is  to  a  dark  body  that 
one  must  look  for  such  destruction,  because  they  are  so 
much  more  numerous  in  space.  That  any  of  the  lucent 
stars  could  collide  with  the  Sun  is  demonstrably  impossible 
for  aeons  of  years.  But  this  is  far  from  the  case  with  a 
dark  star. 

Judged  [however]  by  any  scale  of  time  we  know  the 
chance  of  such  catastrophe  is  immeasurably  remote.  Not 
only  may  each  one  rest  content  in  the  thought  that  he 
will  die  from  causes  of  his  own  choosing  or  neglect,  but  the 
Earth  itself  will  cease  to  be  a  possible  abode  of  life,  and 
even  the  Sun  will  have  become  cold  and  dark  and  dead  so 
long  before  that  day  arrives  that  when  the  final  shock  shall 
come,  it  will  be  quite  ready  [for  another  awakening  into 
activity]. 

The  hypothesis  of  ring  formation,  put  forward  by 
Pierre  Simon,  Marquis  de  Laplace,  the  eminent  French 
astronomer,  in  his  famous  Exposition  du  Systeme  du 
Monde,  in  1796,  to  account  for  the  birth  of  the  solar 
system,  plausible  as  it  appears  on  the  surface,  and 
which  was  the  prevailing  opinion  down  to  a  compara- 
tively recent  date,  is  found  to  be  no  longer  tenable. 
This  now  celebrated  Laplacian  hypothesis  began  by 
assuming  a  rotating,  lens-shaped,  intensely  heated 
nebulous  mass,  that  slowly  contracted  as  its  heat  radi- 
ated into  space,  and  threw  off  rings  of  fiery  vapour 
which  broke  up  and  condensed  into  separate  globular 
masses,  destined  to  form  the  planets.  These  planet 
balls  revolved  around  the  central  condensation,  which 
was  ultimately  to  form  the  Sun,  in  the  same  general 
direction  as  the  ring  had  revolved,  and  in  turn  con- 


The  Capture  Theory  263 

tracted,  some  throwing  off  rings  of  matter  which  later, 
it  was  thought,  broke  up  and  condensed  to  form  attend- 
ant satellites. 

Tennyson,  in  The  Princess,  Part  Second,  thus  alludes 
to  this  beautifully  simple,  but  now  largely  discarded, 
theory  of  evolution,  not  only  of  the  solar  system  but 
of  the  entire  universe: 

This  world  was  once  a  fluid  haze  of  light, 
Till  toward  the  centre  set  the  starry  tides, 
And  eddied  into  suns,  that  wheeling  cast 
The  planets. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  noticed  that  an  interest- 
ing theory  of  cosmical  evolution  has  recently  (1909) 
been  advanced  by  T.  J.  J.  See  and  others,  termed  the 
Capture  Theory,  between  which  and  the  accretion 
theories  of  Chamberlin  and  Moulton  there  seems  to 
be  much  in  common.  In  a  general  way  it  assumes  that 
the  order  of  the  universe  is  the  incessant  expulsion  of 
tiny  particles  of  dust  from  the  stars  by  radiant  energy, 
into  space,  there  to  collect  into  cosmical  clouds  or 
nebulae,  with  the  drifting  together  and  condensation 
of  nebulae  into  stars  and  stellar  systems,  as  gravita- 
tion reasserts  its  force — the  world-process  being,  as  one 
of  its  advocates  has  said,  "an  eternal  cycle  of  centralisa- 
tion and  dispersion." 

According  to  this  theory  the  spiral  nebulae  out  of 
which  stars  and  systems  are  evolving  are  formed  by  the 
close  approach  of  two  nebulous  streams,  and  their 
curling  together  in  the  exercise  of  mutual  gravitation, 
or  by  the  curling  up  of  a  single  nebulous  stream  by 
reason  of  its  own  gravitation.  By  concentration  of  the 
knots  or  condensations  of  nebulous  material  within  the 
spirals  thus  formed,  sun-centres  are  supposed  to  be 


264  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

produced.  It  is  also  supposed  that  these  suns  by  their 
capture  of  neighbouring  knots  or  condensations  develop 
systems  of  planets,  while  the  planets  in  turn  capture 
systems  of  satellites.  Or  again,  the  suns  may  draw 
together  into  binaries,  triple  or  quadruple  star-systems, 
or  into  magnificent  star-clusters. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  LOCAL  SOLAR  SYSTEM    (A   Synopsis) 

And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to 
divide  the  day  from  the  night;  and  let  them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons 
and  for  days  and  years. 

GENESIS  i.,-14- 

THE  most  important  of  all  the  celestial  bodies,  so 
far  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are  concerned,  is 
the  Sun  (Plate  XX.),  the  giver  of  light  and  heat  and 
energy,  and  to  whose  beneficent  rays  highly  organised 
life  here  owes  its  existence  and  its  perpetual  propaga- 
tion. This  mighty  orb,  which  is  roughly  estimated  as 
over  seven  hundred  times  larger  than  all  the  planets 
and  satellites  of  the  system  put  together,  and  was 
called  by  the  late  Schiaparelli  the  "most  magnificent 
work  of  the  Almighty,"  is  about  864,750  miles  in 
diameter,  and  some  92,820,000  miles  distant  from  the 
Earth. 

It  is  so  large  that  were  it  hollowed  out  like  an  im- 
mense rubber  ball,  and  the  Earth  placed  at  its  centre, 
the  Moon  could  revolve  at  its  present  average  distance 
of  about  239,000  miles,  and  there  would  still  be  room 
for  another  satellite  to  circle  in  an  orbit  over  190,000 
miles  exterior  to  the  Moon's  orbit.  And  again,  so  far 
off  is  it,  that  a  railway  train,  which,  travelling  night  and 
day  at  the  uniform  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour,  could 

265 


266 


The  Call  of  the  Stars 


make  a  circuit  of  the  Earth  in  seventeen  days,  and  a 
journey  to  the  Moon  in  5^  months,  would  take  176 
years  to  reach  the  Sun,  and  about  5J  years  to  travel 
round  it.  Then,  too,  this  same  train,  travelling  at  its 
sixty-miles-an-hour  rate,  would  take  over  5300  years  to 


FIG.  5.     The  Orbits  of  the  Terrestrial  Planets. 

make  the  trip  to  the  orbit  of  Neptune,  the  present 
known  boundary  of  the  local  solar  system. 

The  planets,  which  may  be  divided  into  two  principal 
classes — the  inner  or  terrestrial,  and  the  outer  or  major 
— are  dark  opaque  bodies  that  are  illuminated  by  the 
Sun  as  they  circle  round  it,  their  relative  distances  from 
which  have  generally  a  rough  kind  of  order  that  fol- 
lows what  is  known  as  Bode's  Law.  They  are  believed 
to  have  been  evolved,  as  mentioned  in  the  previous 
chapter,  from  various  nuclei  which  existed  in  the 


The  Local  Solar  System 


267 


original  spiral,  and  are  all  of  the  same  age.  The  inner 
or  terrestrial  planets  (Fig.  5)  were  evolved  from  small 
nuclei,  and  are  all  of  them  relatively  small  in  size,  and 
rather  dense  in  structure.  They  are  also  comparatively 
near  together,  travel  at  higher  speed,  and  have  few  or 


FIG.  6.     The  Orbits  of  the  Major  Planets. 

no  satellites.  The  outer  or  major  planets  (Fig.  6),  on 
the  other  hand,  were  evolved  from  great  nuclei  and  are 
huge,  rather  vapoury  bodies,  not  quite  so  advanced  in 
their  planetary  history.  They  are  enormously  distant 
from  one  another,  travel  more  leisurely,  and  have,  as  a 
rule,  imposing  retinues  of  attendants. 

The  planets  that  are  nearer  the  Sun  than  the  Earth  is 
are  sometimes  called  inferior  planets,  and  those  which 
are  farther  from  the  Sun,  superior  planets.  Planets 


268  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

whose  orbits  lie  between  the  Earth  and  the  Sun  have 
very  different  phases  and  apparent  motions  from  those 
whose  orbits  lie  beyond  the  Earth  from  the  Sun. 
When  an  inferior  planet  lies  between  the  Sun  and  the 
Earth,  and  nearly  in  line  with  them,  it  is  in  inferior 
conjunction,  and  when  on  the  far  side  of  the  Sun,  it 
is  in  superior  conjunction.  It  is  at  greatest  eastern 
elongation  when  at  its  greatest  apparent  distance  east 
of  the  Sun,  and  at  greatest  western  elongation  when 
at  its  greatest  apparent  distance  west  of  it.  When 
it  is  west  of  the  Sun,  it  rises  earlier  than  the  Sun,  and 
is  a  morning  star,  and  when  east  of  the  Sun,  it  sets  later 
than  the  Sun,  and  is  an  evening  star. 

A  superior  planet  is  in  conjunction  when  on  the  far 
side  of  the  Sun,  and  is  then  at  its  greatest  distance  from 
the  Earth.  It  is  in  opposition  when  it  is  nearest,  that  is, 
when  it  is  behind  the  Earth  and  in  line  with  it  and  the 
Sun.  All  the  planets,  when  nearest  the  Earth,  appear 
for  a  relatively  brief  time  to  move  slowly  backward. 
Then,  too,  a  planet  usually  describes  more  or  less  of  a 
loop  or  flourish,  as  it  thus  seems  to  pass  back  and  forth 
among  the  stars.  This  apparent  retrograde  motion,  in 
a  superior  planet,  occurs  when  the  Earth  is  overtaking 
and  passing  it,  and  in  an  inferior  planet,  when  it  is 
overtaking  and  passing  the  Earth. 

When  viewed  through  the  telescope,  planets  appear 
as  round  globes,  like  little  worlds  in  fact,  differing  in 
this  respect  from  stars,  which  seem  to  be  only  points  of 
light.  They  have  no  light  of  their  own,  as  the  stars 
have,  but  their  measurable  disks  reflect  the  sunlight, 
and  their  light  is  far  steadier  than  that  of  the  stars.  They 
follow  a  general  track  or  path  called  the  zodiac,  so 
that  each  planet  is  always  somewhere  in  the  zodiac, 
and  is  said  to  be  in  the  constellation  that  forms  its 


The  Local  Solar  System  269 

apparent  background.  Such  as  can  be  seen  with  the 
naked  eye  are  most  of  the  time  much  brighter  than  any 
first-magnitude  star.  Occasionally  Uranus  can  be  seen 
with  the  naked  eye,  as  a  star  of  the  sixth  magnitude, 
while  Neptune,  which  is  about  as  bright  as  an  eighth- 
magnitude  star,  can  be  seen  only  with  the  aid  of  a  good 
field-glass,  or  a  telescope.  It  will  be  found  that  by 
looking  up  their  positions  with  the  aid  of  the  American 
Ephemeris  and  Nautical  Almanac,  published  annually 
by  the  United  States  Government,  they  may  be  the 
more  readily  recognised. 

All  the  planets,  and  all  the  satellites  that  belong  to 
them,  revolve  in  their  orbits  round  the  Sun,  in  the 
opposite  direction  to  the  hands  of  a  clock,  and  they  all 
—except  Uranus  and  Neptune  and  their  satellites,  and 
the  eighth  satellite  of  Jupiter  and  the  ninth  satellite  of 
Saturn,  which  rotate  in  a  "retrograde"  or  backward 
direction — rotate  on  their  axes  in  the  same  "counter- 
clockwise" way.  And  further,  all  the  satellites  of  the 
planets,  so  far  as  is  definitely  known,  turn  the  same 
face  always  to  their  primary,  just  as  the  Moon  does  to 
the  Earth.  Then,  too,  a  time  will  come,  though  far 
remote,  when,  like  Mercury  and  Venus,  each  of  the  six 
remaining  planets  will  turn  an  unchanging  face  to  the 
Sun,  the  father  of  them  all. 

The  motions  of  the  planets  in  their  'orbits  take  place 
in  accordance  with  three  very  important  laws,  dis- 
covered by  the  famous  German  astronomer,  Johann 
Kepler,  and  therefore  called  Kepler's  Laws. 

The  first  law  (announced  in  1609)  is,  that  the  orbits 
of  the  planets  are  ellipses,  having  the  Sun  in  one  of  the 
foci. 

The  second  law  is,  that  the  radius  vector  of  a  planet 
— that  is,  an  imaginary  line  joining  the  planet  to  the  Sun 


270  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

— passes  over  equal  areas  of  space  in  equal  periods  of 
time. 

The  third  law  (published  in  1619)  is,  that  the  squares 
of  the  periods  or  times  of  revolution  of  the  different 
planets  about  the  Sun  are  proportional  to  the  cubes  of 
their  mean  distances  from  the  Sun.  By  way  of  illustra- 
tion, suppose  the  period  or  time  of  revolution  of  one 
planet  is  eight  times  as  long  as  that  of  another  planet, 
then  by  Kepler's  law  the  mean  distance  of  the  first 
planet  from  the  Sun  will  be  four  times  that  of  the 
second  planet.  This  number  is  reached  by  taking  the 
square  of  eight  and  then  extracting  the  cube  root, 
which  is  four.  Knowing,  therefore,  the  distance  of  the 
first  planet,  that  of  the  second  planet  may  be  readily 
found,  by  simply  dividing  the  distance  of  the  first 
planet  by  four.  This  third  law  is  known  as  Kepler's 
"harmonic  law." 

Newton  interpreted  these  laws  of  planetary  motion 
and  showed  with  certain  limitations,  that  they  are  the 
direct  consequences  of  one  fundamental  law  of  nature, 
the  Law  of  Universal  Gravitation.  This  empirical  law 
(announced  in  1687)  is,  that  all  bodies  in  space  attract 
one  another  with  a  force  directly  proportional  to  the 
product  of  their  masses,  and  inversely  proportional  to 
the  square  of  their  distances  apart. 

The  inner  or  terrestrial  planets  consist  of  four  worlds, 
namely,  Mercury,  Venus,  the  Earth,  and  Mars.  As  far 
as  is  known,  Mercury,  the  "  Sparkling  One,"  is  the  near- 
est to  the  Sun  of  all  the  planets.  Its  period  of  rotation 
and  of  revolution  are  the  same,  so  that  it  always  keeps 
the  same  side  toward  the  Sun,  and  has  no  alternation  of 
day  and  night.  The  eccentricity  of  its  orbit  is  greater 
than  that  of  any  of  the  principal  planets,  so  that  at  times 
it  is  half  as  far  off  again  from  the  Sun  as  at  others.  As 


The  Local  Solar  System  271 

its  orbit  is  inside  that  of  the  Earth,  Mercury  is  visible 
only  either  in  the  evening  or  in  the  morning  sky.  It 
is  never  seen  very  far  above  the  horizon,  and  owing  to 
its  proximity  to  the  Sun — being  never  more  than  about 
28°  from  it — is  difficult  to  observe  with  the  naked  eye. 
Nevertheless,  if  the  observer  knows  where  to  look,  it  is 
easy  to  pick  up  the  elusive  little  planet,  before  it  sinks 
below  the  horizon,  especially  with  the  aid  of  an  opera- 
glass.  It  is  said  that  the  celebrated  astronomer  Co- 
pernicus lamented  in  his  last  moments  (May,  1543) 
that  he  had  never  been  able  to  see  it.  Gassendi  attrib- 
utes the  failure  to  the  mist  and  vapour  so  very  preva- 
lent along  the  banks  of  the  Vistula,  where  Copernicus 
lived. 

The  next  planet  in  order  outward  from  the  Sun  is 
Venus,  the  "Beautiful,"  the  most  radiant  of  all  the 
planets,  outshining  heaven's  host.  It  is  remarkably 
like  the  Earth  in  size,  so  much  so  as  to  be  called  its 
"twin-sister, "  and  is  in  about  the  same  stage  of  planet- 
ary life.  Like  little  Mercury,  it  turns  on  its  axis  in  the 
same  time  that  it  revolves  round  the  sun,  and  in  con- 
sequence it  turns  always  the  same  face  to  him,  and  has 
no  alternation  of  day  and  night.  Its  orbit,  in  contrast 
with  that  of  Mercury,  is  remarkable  for  the  smallness 
of  its  eccentricity.  Being  nearer  than  the  Earth  to  the 
Sun,  Venus,  like  Mercury  is  visible  only  either  in  the 
evening  or  in  the  morning  sky, 
and  is  never  much  more  than 
45°  from  the  sun.  Then,  too,  • 
like  Mercury,  it  exhibits  phases 

(Fig.  7),  invisible  to  the  naked  FlG  ?  The  Different  phases 
eye,  which  recall  those  of  the  Of  Venus. 

Moon.     Its  light  is  of  a  daz- 
zling whiteness,  while  that  of  Mercury  is  slightly  reddish. 


272  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

So  intense  is  its  brilliancy  at  the  time  of  its  greatest 
brightness  (Plate  XXVIII.),  that  its  light  often  casts 
a  shadow,  and,  not  infrequently,  it  may  be  seen  with 
the  naked  eye  in  broad  daylight.  In  The  Telescope,  The 
Honorable  Mrs.  Ward  writes: 

Late  in  the  evening  of  January  24,  1854,  when  both  the 
sun  and  moon  were  sufficiently  out  of  the  way,  the  planet 
Venus  being  in  its  position  of  greatest  brilliancy  shone  with 
a  remarkable  lustre.  We  observed  it  in  a  room  with  a  single 
window,  every  sash  of  which  was  imaged  on  the  ground,  as 
it  would  have  been  in  moonlight,  and  even  the  slight  waves 
and  concentric  lines  on  the  panes  could  be  clearly  traced. 

The  next  planet  outward  is  the  Earth,  which  shines 
by  reflecting  the  light  received  from  the  Sun,  as  all  its 
planetary  neighbours  do,  and  which  from  the  nearer 
planets  must  appear  as  a  brilliant  star,  as  it  revolves 
in  its  slightly  elliptical  orbit.  It  occupies  a  most  unique 
position  in  the  universe,  for  not  only  is  it  the  abode  of 
man,  but  it  is  the  only  world  of  which  human  beings 
have  any  direct  knowledge.  It  is  a  remarkably  smooth 
globe,  and  departs  but  slightly  from  the  spherical  form, 
being  flattened  at  the  poles  only  about  twenty-seven 
miles.  This  flattening,  however,  as  Bayne  says  in  his 
Pith  of  Astronomy,  "leads  to  the  truthful  but  paradoxi- 
cal statement,  that  the  Mississippi  River  runs  up  hill, 
as  its  mouth  is  three  miles  farther  from  the  centre  of  the 
earth  than  is  its  source."  It  is  attended  by  one  faithful 
satellite,  the  "moon  divine"  of  Southey. 

Passing  outwards,  the  next  planet  is  Mars,  the  "Red 
Planet ' '  (Plate  XXXIV.) ,  one  of  the  most  interesting  ob- 
jects in  the  heavens,  which  in  its  days  and  seasons 
closely  resembles  the  Earth.  From  its  many  points  of 
resemblance  to  the  latter  planet,  some  astronomers  are 


The  Local  Solar  System  273 

inclined  to  believe  that  Mars  may  be  a  habitable  world. 
Being  only  a  little  over  half  as  large  as  the  Earth,  it  has 
run  more  swiftly  through  the  stages  of  its  evolution,  so 
that  planetary  old  age  has  already  set  in.  Its  average 
temperature  is  commonly  believed  to  be  much  lower 
than  that  of  the  earth,  and  probably  below  the  freezing- 
point  of  water.  Its  orbit  is  more  eccentric  than  that  of 
any  other  of  the  principal  planets  except  Mercury,  and 
it  marks  the  limit  of  the  inner  or  the  terrestrial  group  of 
planets.  Seen  with  the  naked  eye,  as  a  bright  red  star 
shining  with  a  steady  light,  it  expands  under  telescopic 
power  into  a  broad  disk  of  a  fiery  orange  colour,  with 
spots  and  markings  upon  it  of  a  dark  greenish-grey  or 
bluish-grey  tone,  and  an  all-embracing  network  of  ill- 
defined  blue-green  streaks  termed  "canali"  or  channels 
(Plate  XXXV.).  At  the  poles  it  is  capped  with  bright 
white  rounded  spots,  supposed  to  be  snow,  the  so-called 
"polar  caps."  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  thus  poetically 
writes: 

The  snows  that  glittered  on  the  disk  of  Mars 
Have  melted,  but  the  planet's  fiery  orb 
Rolls  in  the  crimson  summer  of  its  year. 

Mars  is  never  very  brilliant  except  when  it  is  in 
opposition — that  is,  when  it  is  on  the  same  side  of  the 
Sun  as  is  the  Earth,  and  nearly  in  line  with  them — 
which  happens  once  in  about  seven  hundred  and  eighty 
days.  Its  next  opposition  will  occur  in  January,  1914, 
from  which  time  it  will  be  visible  in  the  evening,  until 
the  following  autumn.  It  has  two  small  satellites, 
named  Deimos  and  Phobos,  which  are  remarkable  for 
the  extraordinary  rapidity  of  their  motions.  In  his 
satire,  Gulliver's  Travels,  published  in  1726,  Dean 

18 


274  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Jonathan  Swift  makes  his  hero  tell  about  the  astrono- 
mers on  the  Flying  Island  of  Laputa  being  so  very 
clever  that  they  had  discovered  two  moons  circling 
round  Mars,  one  of  which  went  round  the  ruddy  planet 
in  ten  hours.  This  was  considered  a  most  wild  fancy,  as 
no  moon  known  then,  revolved  round  its  primary  in  a 
shorter  time  than  the  latter  took  to  turn  on  its  axis. 
But  in  1877,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  Asaph  Hall  at 
the  Naval  Observatory,  Washington,  found  that  Mars 
had  two  moons,  and  that  one  of  them  (Phobos),  a 
rather  gay  little  satellite,  revolves  even  faster  than 
Mr.  Lemuel  Gulliver  of  Wapping  said,  taking  only 
seven  hours  and  thirty-nine  minutes  to  complete  its 
orbit. 

Beyond  the  orbit  of  Mars  stretches  a  vast  space,  in 
which  circulate  an  all  but  innumerable  host  of  very  tiny 
worlds  called  planetoids  or  asteroids.  Their  orbits  are 
more  eccentric  than  those  of  any  of  the  principal 
planets,  and  the  periods  of  revolution  vary  from  about 
two  to  twelve  years.  Up  to  the  present  time  about 
eight  hundred  of  them  have  been  listed,  and  new  ones 
are  being  found  every  year,  principally  by  means  of  the 
photographic  plate.  The  biggest  of  them,  Ceres,  is  less 
than  five  hundred  miles  in  diameter,  and  many  of  them 
are  not  more  than  ten  or  twenty  miles.  All  of  them  are 
invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  with  the  exception  of  Vesta, 
which  though  not  much  more  than  two  hundred  miles 
in  diameter,  happens  to  be  the  brightest,  and  under 
favourable  conditions  can  sometimes  be  seen  without 
optical  aid.  One  of  the  most  erratic  of  these  tiny  bodies, 
named  Eros,  has  a  large  portion  of  its  orbit  within  that 
of  Mars,  and  conies  at  times  nearer  the  Earth  than  any 
other  celestial  body  except  the  Moon  or  an  occasional 
comet.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  total  mass  of 


The  Local  Solar  System  275 

the  whole  planetoid  group  is  less  than  one-quarter  that 
of  the  Earth. 

Outside  the  zone  of  the  planetoids,  which  forms  the 
dividing-line  between  the  inner  and  outer  quartette 
of  planets,  rolls  the  mammoth  planet  Jupiter  (Plate 
XXX VI.),  the  greatest  and  most  magnificent  member  of 
the  Sun's  family  of  worlds.  It  is  over  thirteen  hundred 
times  as  big  as  the  Earth,  and  is  larger  than  all  the 
other  planets  put  together.  So  big  is  it  that  even  in  a 
small  telescope  it  looks  as  large  as  the  full  moon  looks 
to  the  unaided  eye.  Its  great  size  having  tended  to 
keep  it  young,  it  is  probably  still  a  semi-sun,  though 
not  so  much  of  a  one  as  to  shine  by  its  own  light.  And 
yet  there  are  reasons  for  believing  that  its  surface  is  not 
altogether  dark,  and  that  it  may,  at  least,  have  a  dull- 
red  glow.  That  it  shines  by  reflected  sunlight  is 
evidenced,  however,  by  the  fact  that  its  own  moons 
receive  no  perceptible  light  from  it. 

Its  light  has  a  yellowish-white  tint,  and  is  remarkably 
steady.  Near  the  time  of  opposition,  which  occurs  at 
intervals  of  three  hundred  and  ninety-nine  days,  it  may 
be  easily  recognised  in  the  evening  sky,  when  it  is,  next 
to  Venus,  the  brightest  star-like  object  in  the  heavens. 
It  will  be  in  opposition  early  in  August,  1914,  in  Capri- 
cornus,  and  will  be  a  brilliant  and  commanding  object 
in  the  summer  sky. 

No  planet,  it  is  said,  presents  such  a  fine  opportunity 
for  colour-study  as  does  Jupiter.  When  viewed  with  a 
good  telescope,  its  broad  bright  disk  appears  covered 
with  belts  and  spots  of  various  colours  and  varying 
shapes.  On  each  side  of  the  equator  are  two  very  dis- 
tinct, cherry-red  belts,  called  the  tropical  belts.  Then 
too,  traversing  all  of  the  bright  belts,  wisps  or  lacings 
may  be  detected,  and  just  below  the  southern  tropical 


276  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

belt  is  the  celebrated  Great  Red  Spot,  which  has  been 
more  or  less  visible  since  the  summer  of  1878.  So  far 
as  is  known,  Jupiter  is  attended  by  eight  satellites,  four 
large  and  four  small,  the  four  larger  ones  being  among 
the  easiest  objects  for  a  small  telescope.  Its  fifth  and 
smallest  satellite  is  notable  as  moving  faster  than  any 
other  satellite  in  the  solar  system.  In  addition,  Jupiter 
has  an  adopted  "Comet  family"  of  some  thirty-two 
comets,  made  prisoners  to  the  Sun,  by  its  disturbing 
influence.  Its  period  of  rotation  is  shorter  than  that  of 
any  other  planetary  body,  being  on  the  average  about 
nine  hours  and  fifty-five  minutes. 

The  sixth  of  the  planets  in  the  order  of  distance  from 
the  Sun  is  Saturn  (Plate  XXXVII. ),  the  show  mem- 
ber of  the  Sun's  planet  family.  It  is  the  second  largest 
planet  in  the  solar  system,  its  diameter,  roughly  speak- 
ing, being  about  one-fifth  less  than  that  of  the  planet 
Jupiter.  It  is  a  spheroidal  globe  and  is  more  flattened 
out  at  the  poles  and  bulged  out  at  the  equator  than 
any  other  planet.  In  proportion  to  its  size,  it  is  the 
lightest  of  any  of  the  planets,  its  density  being  so  small 
that  it  is  actually  lighter  than  water.  It  is  almost  twice 
as  far  from  the  sun  as  is  Jupiter,  and  is,  in  all  probability, 
at  an  earlier  stage  of  evolution.  To  the  unaided  eye  it 
appears  as  a  dull,  red-yellow  star  of  about  the  first 
magnitude.  When  seen  through  a  good  telescope  it  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  wonderful  and  beautiful  object  in  all 
the  sky.  It  has  been  beautifully  alluded  to  as  the  Te 
Deum  of  the  heavens — an  oratorio  of  the  night — and 
yet  with  all  its  grandeur  it  is  a  far  less  noble  creation  of 
God  than  is  a  human  soul.  It  is  surrounded  by  cloud- 
belts,  similar  to  those  which  encircle  its  giant  neighbour, 
but  its  colouring  is  not  nearly  so  bright  or  so  varied. 

Saturn's  most  unique  feature  is  its  magnificent  sys- 


The  Local  Solar  System  277 

tern  of  rings,  surrounding  it  above  the  equator.  The 
entire  diameter  of  the  ring  formation  is  rather  more 
than  172,000  miles,  the  breadth  about  38,000  miles, 
and  the  thickness  about  eighty  miles.  The  rings  are 
supposed  to  consist  of  innumerable  meteoric  particles, 
each  circling  in  its  own  individual  orbit,  but  all  keeping 
so  close  together  that  they  appear  like  three  solid 
concentric  rings,  whirling  continually  around  the  planet. 
They  are  so  thin,  that  this  page  is  probably  thicker 
compared  to  its  breadth,  than  they  are  compared  to 
theirs.  They  are  wholly  unlike  anything  to  be  seen 
elsewhere  in  the  heavens,  and  are  known  respectively 
as  Ring  A,  the  outermost  one;  Ring  B,  the  middle  one; 
and  Ring  C,  the  crepe  or  gauze  ring,  nearest  to  the 
body  of  the  planet.  They  are  brightest  and  most  open 
when  the  planet  is  in  either  the  constellation  Scorpio  or 
the  constellation  Taurus.  Saturn  is  now  (January, 
1914)  in  opposition  in  the  easterly  part  of  Taurus.  It 
will  be  at  its  brightest  about  the  third  week  in  Decem- 
ber, 1914,  when  in  opposition  near  the  border  line 
between  Taurus  and  Gemini,  at  which  time  the  south- 
ern side  of  the  wide-open  rings  may  be  seen. 

Outside  the  rings,  Saturn  has  no  fewer  than  ten  moons 
circling  round  it  in  ceaseless  revolution.  One  of  them, 
called  Titan,  is  a  bright  and  big  moon  about  the  size  of 
the  planet  Mercury,  and  is  quite  a  little  world  in  itself. 
The  vastness  of  Saturn's  realm  will  be  at  once  apparent 
when  it  is  known  that  the  distance  from  the  planet  to  its 
outermost  moon  is  nearly  eight  million  miles.  A  prism 
binocular  field-glass  will  disclose  the  rings,  but  the  belts 
and  moons  require  a  more  powerful  instrument,  while 
some  of  the  latter  are  almost  at  the  limit  of  visibility. 

Beyond  beautiful  Saturn  is  Uranus,  the  seventh 
planet  from  the  Sun,  and  fourth  in  order  of  size.  It  is 


278  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

considered  to  be  the  smallest  of  the  major  planets,  its 
diameter  being  calculated  as  but  little  more  than  four 
times  that  of  the  Earth,  although  some  measurements, 
including  that  by  Barnard,  place  it  above  Neptune  in 
point  of  size.  It  is  a  largely  vaporous  and  much  ex- 
panded body,  and  has  a  density  only  one-fifth  greater 
than  that  of  water.  On  account  of  its  distance  from  the 
Sun,  which  is  about  twice  that  of  Saturn,  and  nineteen 
times  that  of  the  Earth,  it  receives  but  little  solar  heat 
and  light.  When  near  opposition  it  may  be  seen  with 
the  naked  eye  as  a  star  of  about  the  sixth  magnitude, 
and  yet  few  observers  can  see  it  without  optical  aid. 

In  a  good  telescope  it  appears  as  a  very  beautiful, 
pale,  greenish-blue  planet,  and  under  favourable  con- 
ditions faint  markings  may  be  seen  traversing  its  neat 
round  disk.  A  remarkable  thing  about  Uranus  is  that 
it  is  enveloped  in  a  dense  atmosphere  of  enormous 
extent.  It  rotates  in  a  "retrograde"  or  backward 
direction,  but  it  revolves  in  the  direction  pursued  by 
all  the  other  planets — that  is,  "counter-clockwise. "  It 
rotates  like  a  top  rolling  on  its  side,  and  in  that  position 
revolves  round  its  orbit  on  its  great  annual  journey  of 
about  eighty-four  terrestrial  years.  It  is  attended  by 
four  faint  satellites,  which  revolve  around  it  at  about 
its  equator,  in  a  retrograde  or  backward  direction,  in 
orbits  nearly  perpendicular  to  its  own  orbit.  It  was 
named  after  the  god  whom  the  Greeks  believed  to  be 
the  father  of  Saturn. 

Uranus  remains  in  each  constellation  somewhere  near 
seven  years,  travelling  a  little  more  than  four  degrees  a 
year.  It  is  now  (January,  1914)  in  Capricornus, 
about  twenty-four  degrees  east  of  the  Milk  Dipper  in 
Sagittarius.  It  was  in  opposition  in  1913  on  July 
29th,  and  will  be  in  opposition  in  1914  on  August  4th. 


The  Local  Solar  System  279 

Farther  afield,  on  the  frontier  of  the  solar  system, 
some  twenty-seven  hundred  million  miles  away,1  is 
lonely  Neptune,  draggling  along  its  nearly  circular 
orbit  at  the  comparatively  leisurely  pace  of  three  and 
two-fifths  miles  a  second.  It  is  the  eighth  and,  so  far 
as  is  known,  the  most  distant  member  of  the  Sun's 
family  of  worlds.  It  is  commonly  ranked  the  third 
largest  of  all  the  planets,  although  some  measurements 
make  Uranus  the  larger  of  the  two.  Like  Uranus,  it  is 
enveloped  in  a  large  and  dense  atmosphere,  and  it  is 
celebrated  for  having  been  discovered  by  means  of 
computations  based  on  its  disturbing  attraction  on  that 
planet.  It  was  located  in  Aquarius  by  a  young  astrono- 
mer, John  C.  Adams,  of  England,  and  a  young  mathe- 
matician, Urbain  LeVerrier,  of  France,  and  at  the 
latter's  request  Galle,  at  the  Berlin  Observatory, 
searched  for  and  found  it  less  than  one  degree  from  the 
spot  indicated,  on  September  23,  1846.  At  first  it  was 
called  LeVerrier  but  was  later,  at  the  suggestion  of 
LeVerrier,  more  fittingly  named  after  Neptune. 

It  shines  as  brightly  as  an  eighth-magnitude  star, 
and,  though  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  can  be  seen  with 
a  good  prism  binocular  field-glass.  In  a  large  instru- 
ment it  exhibits  a  small,  weakly-illuminated,  bluish  or 
leaden-tinted  disk,  on  which  no  definite  markings  have 
as  yet  been  seen.  Its  axis  is  even  more  tilted  over  than 
that  of  Uranus,  and  it  rotates  in  this  extraordinary 
position  in  a  " retrograde"  manner,  but  performs  its 
orbital  revolution  "direct,"  as  all  the  other  planets  do. 
As  far  as  is  known,  only  one  single,  nameless,  satellite 
(Plate  XL.)  adorns  the  skies  of  Neptune.  Like 
Rudyard  Kipling's  cat,  it  "walks  by  itself. "  It  is  about 

1  Vast  as  this  distance  may  seem,  the  very  nearest  of  the  stars  proper 
— Alpha  Centauri — is  over  nine  thousand  times  more  distant. 


280  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

as  bright  as  a  fourteenth-magnitude  star,  and  has,  like 
the  Uranian  moons,  a  "retrograde"  motion.  It  was 
discovered  by  Lassell  on  October  10,  1846.  Neptune 
is  now  (1914)  in  the  constellation  Gemini,  south  of  and 
not  far  from  Castor  and  Pollux.  It  remains  on  an 
average  about  thirteen  years  in  each  constellation. 

For  some  time  the  existence  of  an  extra-Neptunian 
planet  has  been  strongly  suspected,  from  indications  of 
its  influence  on  the  motions  of  certain  comets,  as  also 
on  the  movements  of  Neptune.  But  the  numerous 
photographic  as  well  as  telescopic  searches  hitherto 
made  for  it,  have  been  without  success.  Quite  recently, 
however,  the  orbit  of  a  remote  hypothetical  planet  has 
been  again  calculated,  and  its  position  announced  for 
1914.  Possibly  it  may  then  be  detected,  if  such  a  planet 
exists,  as  seems  most  likely.  Its  calculated  distance 
from  the  Sun  is  rather  more  than  nine  thousand  million 
miles,  or  over  three  times  Neptune's  distance. 

Besides  the  planets  and  their  moons,  but  totally 
unlike  them,  are  those  most  interesting  stellar  bodies 
called  comets  and  meteors — the  most  erratic  members 
of  the  solar  family  circle.  Scattered,  as  they  are,  in 
unknown  millions,  throughout  the  system,  these  strange 
and  mysterious,  yet  harmless,  things  are,  as  they  speed 
across  the  sky,  only  visible  for  the  brief  period  they  are 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Sun  and  the  Earth. 

No  more  unique  and  apt  illustration  of  the  relative 
sizes,  distances,  and  motions,  in  the  local  solar  system 
has  been  devised  than  that  suggested  long  ago  by  Sir 
John  Herschel,  in  his  Outlines  of  Astronomy:  On  a  wide 
level  field  or  common,  place  an  ordinary  library  globe, 
two  feet  in  diameter,  to  represent  the  Sun.  At  a  distance 
of  82  feet  from  it  put  a  mustard  seed,  to  repre- 
sent Mercury;  a  pea  at  a  distance  of  142  feet,  for  Venus; 


The  Local  Solar  System  281 

another  pea  at  a  distance  of  215  feet,  for  the  Earth; 
and  a  rather  large  pin's  head  at  a  distance  of  327  feet, 
for  Mars;  and  minute  grains  of  sand  at  distances 
varying  from  500  to  600  feet,  to  represent  most  of 
the  planetoids.  Place  a  fair-sized  orange  at  a  distance 
of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  represent  Jupiter; 
a  small  orange  at  a  distance  of  two-fifths  of  a  mile 
for  Saturn ;  a  large  cherry  at  a  distance  of  three-fourths 
of  a  mile  for  Uranus;  and  lastly  a  fair-sized  plum  at  a 
distance  of  a  mile  and  a  quarter  to  represent  Neptune. 

According  to  this  scale  the  daily  motion  of  Mercury 
in  its  orbit  would  be  thirty-six  inches;  that  of  Venus, 
twenty-four  inches;  that  of  the  Earth,  twenty-two 
inches;  that  of  Mars,  eighteen  inches;  that  of  Jupiter, 
ten  and  a  half  inches;  that  of  Saturn,  seven  and  a  half 
inches;  that  of  Uranus,  five  inches;  and  that  of  Neptune, 
four  inches.  On  the  same  scale  the  Moon  would  be 
represented  by  a  smaller  seed  than  Mercury,  moving 
in  a  circle  at  a  distance  of  six  and  two-thirds  inches  from 
the  pea  which  represents  the  Earth,  with  a  daily  motion 
of  about  two-thirds  of  an  inch,  and  the  nearest  star 
would  be  located  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  earth, 
several  thousand  miles  away. 

In  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  Lincoln  Park,  Chicago, 
is  a  rotating  Celestial  Sphere,  fifteen  feet  in  diameter, 
in  which  are  represented  the  brighter  stars  of  the  differ- 
ent constellations  that  are  visible  from  the  latitude  of 
Chicago.  In  addition  to  the  stars,  the  Sun  and  Moon 
are  represented,  as  also  are  the  planets  Venus,  Mars, 
Jupiter,  and  Saturn.  The  sphere  is  constructed  of  light 
galvanised  sheet-iron,  and  is  provided  with  an  observer's 
stationary  platform,  and  a  circular  horizon  table.  It 
was  invented  by  Wallace  W.  Atwood,  and  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Academy  by  La  Verne  W.  Noyes. 


282  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

TABLE  OF  SOLAR  AND  PLANETARY  STATISTICS 


Names 

Sun 

Mer- 
cury 

Venus 

Earth 

Mars 

Average  distance 
from  the  Sun,  in 
millions  of  miles 

36 

67.2 

92.8 

I4I.5 

Period  of  revolu- 
tion round  the 
Sun 

87.97 
days 

224.7 
days 

365-25 

days 

i  year  and 
321.65 
days 

Mean  diameter  in 
miles 

864,750 

3400 

7630 

7918 

4230 

Mean  speed  of 
revolution  per 
second 

• 

2.9 

miles 

21 

miles 

IJB 

miles 

*5 

miles 

Average  period  of 
rotation 

25  days 
7  hrs. 
48  min. 

Equals 
time  of 
revolu- 
tion 

Equals 
time  of 
revolu- 
tion 

23  hrs. 
56  min. 
4  sec. 

24  hrs. 
37  min. 
22.65  sec- 

Mean  density  in 
proportion  to 
the  Earth 

0.25 

0.85 

0.89 

1.  00 

(5-5 
com- 
pared 
with  that 
of  water) 

0.71 

Surface  gravity. 
Fall  in  feet  per 
second 

442.4 

6.9 

13.7 

16.1 

6.1 

Number  of  satel- 
lites 

o 

o 

i 

2 

The  Local  Solar  System  283 

TABLE  OF  PLANETARY  STATISTICS  (Continued) 


Names 

Planetoids 

Jupiter 

Saturn 

Uranus 

Neptune 

Average  distance 
from  the  Sun  in 
millions  of  miles 

135-5 
to 
488 

483 

886 

1782 

279I-5 

Period  of  revolu- 
tion round  the 
Sun 

i.  76  to 
12.1  years 

11.86 

years 

29.46 

years 

84.02 
years 

164.78 

years 

Mean  diameter  in 
miles 

10  to  477 

87 

380 

73,120 

31,900 

34,8oo 

Mean  speed  of 
revolution  per 
second 

8  to  115.5 
miles 

8.1 
miles 

6 

miles 

4.f 
miles 

3-4 
miles 

Average  period  of 
rotation 

9  hrs. 
55  min. 

10  hrs. 
1  4  min. 

12  hrs. 

? 

• 

Mean  density  in 
proportion  to 
the  Earth 

0.24 

0.13 

O.22 

O.20 

Surface  gravity. 
Fall  in  feet  per 
second 

42.6 

18.9 

14.4 

14-3 

Number  of  satel- 
lites 

8 

10 

4 

I 

Mean  distance  of  1 
the  Moon  from 
the  Earth 

Deriod  of  revo- 
lution of   the 
Moon     round 
the  Earth 

Mean  di- 
ameter of 
the  Moon 
in  miles 

Period  of 
rotation 
of  the 
Moon 

Mean  den- 
sity of  the 
Moon  in  pro- 
portion to 
the  Earth 

238,840  miles        ; 

>7  days,  7  hrs. 
43  min.  11.15 
sec. 

2163 

Equals 
time   of 
revolu- 
tion 

0.6  1 

CHAPTER  III 

THE  SUN 

The  disk  of  Phoebus,  when  he  climbs  on  high, 

Appears  at  first  but  as  a  blood-shot  eye, 

And  when  his  chariot  downwards  driven  to  bed, 

His  ball  is  with  the  same  suffusion  red; 

But  mounted  high  on  his  meridian  race, 

All  bright  he  shines  and  with  a  better  face. 

OVID  (Dryden's  tr.) 

THE  mighty  orb  of  the  Sun — the  lantern  of  the  world 
(lucerna  Mundi),  as  Copernicus  called  it — is,  as  noted 
in  a  previous  chapter,  the  centre  around  which  the 
little  family  of  worlds  which  constitute  the  local  solar 
system  travel.  It  is  a  hot,  self-luminous,  yellowish- 
white,  whirling  globe,  composed  of  gases  and  metallic 
vapours,  powerfully  compressed  by  its  strong  self- 
gravity  (Plate  XX.) .  It  appears  to  be  rather  more  than 
half  a  degree  in  diameter,  and  seems  a  trifle  larger 
(nearly  two  per  cent.)  in  winter  than  in  summer,  the 
Earth  then,  being  about  3  ^  million  miles  nearer  to  it. 
It  rotates  on  an  axis  inclined  about  7!°  from  a  per- 
pendicular to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  in  the  same  direc- 
tion as  do  the  planets,  making  a  rotation  in  about  25! 
days.  Not  being  a  solid  body,  the  different  parts  of  its 
surface  rotate  at  different  rates,  the  velocity  being 
greater  at  the  equator  than  toward  the  poles.  Hence, 
while  the  period  of  rotation  at  the  equator  is  about 

284 


Yerkes  Observatory 


PLATE  XX.     The  Solar  Disk 

(Showing  calcium  flocculi) 


The  Sun  285 

twenty-five  days,  it  is  approximately  twenty-seven  days 
at  midway  between  the  equator  and  the  poles.  Besides, 
the  sun  has  a  motion  in  space,  since,  at  a  velocity  of 
thirteen  miles  a  second,  it  is  carrying  the  whole 
solar  system  in  the  direction  represented  by  the  "apex 
of  the  Sun's  way/'  a  point  in  the  sky  fairly  near  the  star 
Delta  in  Lyra.  And  again,  the  motion  of  the  Earth 
around  the  Sun  causes  it  apparently  to  move  eastward 
among  the  stars  30°  every  month  in  the  year. 

The  surface  temperature  of  the  Sun  has  been  roughly 
estimated  at  about  15,000°  Fahrenheit,  which  is  several 
thousand  degrees  above  that  obtainable  in  the  most 
powerful  electric  furnace,  and  its  light,  which  reaches 
the  earth  in  eight  minutes,  at  about  one  hundred  and 
forty-six  times  that  of  a  calcium  light,  and  three  and 
two-fifths  times  that  of  the  intensely  brilliant  "crater" 
of  the  electric  arc.  In  addition,  observations  show 
that  the  radiant  energy  received  from  the  Sun  on  every 
square  yard  exposed  perpendicularly  to  its  rays  is 
equivalent  to  about  three  horse-power — a  horse-power 
being  the  unit  of  work  that  will  raise  thirty-three 
thousand  pounds  one  foot  high  in  a  minute. 

What  becomes  of  nearly  all  of  the  light  and  heat  sent 
out  by  the  Sun  is  not  known,  as,  if  it  is  radiated  equally 
in  all  directions,  the  Earth  intercepts  only  about  the 
one  twenty-two-hundred-millionth  part  of  it,  and  all 
the  planets  together  not  more  than  one-hundred-mil- 
lionth part.  As  compared  with  the  Earth,  the  Sun 
has  332,000  times  as  much  mass  or  quantity  of  matter, 
and  exceeds  it  in  bulk  about  1,300,000  times. 

At  the  Sun's  surface,  the  force  of  gravity  is  rather 
more  than  twenty-seven  times  that  at  the  surface  of 
the  Earth.  Hence  a  man  who  on  the  Earth  weighs 
150  Ibs.  would,  if  transported  to  the  Sun,  weigh  nearly 


286  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

two  tons.  On  the  "giant  planet"  Jupiter,  he  would 
weigh  about  400  Ibs.,  and  on  Mars  the  "fiery  planet," 
not  quite  60  Ibs.  On  the  Moon,  Earth's  sole  satel- 
lite world,  his  weight  would  be  reduced  to  less  than 
30  Ibs.,  and  on  one  of  the  tiny  planetoids  to  a  few 
ounces.  Assuming  he  could  exist  there,  suppose  that 
while  on  one  of  the  latter  miniature  worlds  he  played 
football,  a  good  kick  (owing  to  the  lessened  gravity) 
would  not  only  send  the  ball  soaring  into  space,  but 
would  be  apt  to  send  it  spinning  off  the  little  planet. 

Speaking  generally,  the  light  and  heat  of  the  Sun, 
which  is  a  slightly  variable  star,  are  maintained  largely 
by  the  falling  together  of  its  particles  as  it  slowly  con- 
tracts, through  the  dominating  force  of  gravity — the 
contraction  theory  of  Helmholtz ;  partly  by  the  energy 
of  radio-activity;  and,  to  a  very  limited  extent,  perhaps, 
by  the  dashing  of  masses  of  meteors  on  the  solar  surface 
— the  meteoric  hypothesis  of  Mayer.  The  calculations 
of  Helmholtz,  the  eminent  naturalist  (in  1854),  showed 
that  on  account  of  the  Sun's  tremendous  mass,  a  con- 
traction of  some  six  inches  daily,  or  about  one  hundred 
and  eighty  feet  a  year,  from  the  surface  toward  the 
centre,  would  generate  enough  heat  to  maintain  its 
supply  of  energy  for  untold  aeons.  And  again,  it  has 
been  calculated  that  if  there  were  two  and  a  half  parts 
of  radio-active  matter  in  every  one  million  parts  of  the 
Sun's  matter,  the  heat  given  out  would  be  sufficient 
to  keep  up  the  Sun's  output  of  heat  and  light. 

Yet,  immense  as  it  is  to-day,  the  Sun's  store  of  heat 
must  some  day  become  exhausted.  Slowly  but  surely, 
the  solar  globe  must  contract  from  its  present  gaseous 
condition  to  such  a  degree  of  solidity  that  it  will  begin 
to  grow  cold,  and,  having  dissipated  all  its  energy,  be 
no  longer  able  to  support  life  on  the  Earth — a  time,  the 


The  Sun  287 

newer  views  put  as  indeterminately  distant,  and  known 
only  to  Him  whose  are  the  eternal  years.  It  will  still 
continue  to  rush  along  in  space,  not  however,  as  the 
orb  of  day,  but  as  a  dark  and  dead  sun,  accompanied 
by  eight  dark,  cold,  uninteresting  worlds  circling  cease- 
lessly around  it.  Byron,  in  the  opening  lines  of  his 
Darkness,  thus  alludes  to  this  period: 

I  had  a  dream  which  was  not  all  a  dream, 
The  bright  Sun  was  extinguished,  and  the  stars 
Did  wander  darkling  in  the  eternal  space, 
Ray  less  and  pathless,  and  the  icy  Earth 
Swung  blind  and  blackening  in  the  moonless  air. 

Eventually  the  Sun  may  come  into  collision  with 
another  body,  when  as  a  result  of  the  cataclysmic 
shattering  that  must  ensue,  the  present  planetary 
system  will  be  destroyed,  and  a  spiral  nebula  may  be 
formed,  from  which,  after  indefinite  ages,  a  new  system 
will  be  evolved,  and  thus, 

The  world's  great  age  begins  anew. 

In  solar  observation  with  a  telescope,  especial  pre- 
caution should  be  taken  to  shield  the  eye  from  the 
greater  part  of  the  heat  and  light.  A  small  protective 
cap  of  dark  glass,  preferably  dark  yellow  or  dark  green, 
may  be  used,  on  small  instruments — up  to  two-and-a 
half-inch — over  the  eyepiece.  For  use  with  larger 
instruments  special  forms  of  eyepieces  have  been 
devised,  which  allow  most  of  the  light  and  heat  to 
escape.  The  simplest  of  these  is  called  the  "  Herschel " 
eyepiece,  an  attachment  which  greatly  reduces  the 
discomfort  and  risk.  A  very  convenient  method  for 
both  observing  and  exhibiting  the  sun  is  to  fix  a  screen 


288  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

behind  the  eyepiece  of  the  telescope,  and  let  the  image 
of  the  sun  be  projected  upon  the  screen.  Or  again, 
the  sensitised  plate  may  be  substituted  for  the  screen 
and  a  photograph  obtained,  which  can  be  examined 
at  leisure. 

To  the  amateur  observer,  the  chief  objects  of  inter- 
est on  the  bright  solar  disk  are  those  relatively  dark, 
irregular  spots  called  " sun-spots "  (Plate  XXL). 
They  usually  appear,  not  singly,  but  in  groups,  and 
generally  follow  certain  definite  zones,  mostly  lying 
between  10°  and  35°  north  or  south  heliographic  lati- 
tude. They  are  the  most  conspicuous  markings  ever 
observed  on  the  Sun,  and  are  regarded  by  many  as 
emblems  of  advancing  age.  Their  average  lifetime 
is  two  or  three  months;  sometimes,  however,  they  dis- 
appear in  a  day,  and  again  they  have  been  known  to 
last  as  long  as  eighteen  months.  They  are,  as  demon- 
strated by  Hale,  in  1908,  probably  great  electrical 
vortices  or  whirling  storms,  and  are  regarded  as  some- 
what analogous  to  cyclones,  tornadoes,  or  water-spouts 
on  the  earth.  The  vortex  in  the  solar  atmosphere  has, 
it  is  believed,  a  spiral  structure,  and  may  be  either 
right-handed  or  left-handed  in  its  direction,  while  the 
effect  of  the  vortical  motion  is  to  draw  into  the  spot 
gases  from  the  upper  solar  atmosphere,  which  are 
ejected  from  the  spot  at  lower  levels.  The  gases 
present  in  the  nucleus  of  a  sun-spot  have  a  consider- 
ably lower  temperature  than  on  the  surface  of  the  Sun 
outside  of  the  spot,  owing,  it  is  thought,  to  their  cooling 
by  expansion  in  the  axis  of  the  vortex. 

In  a  typical  spot,  the  dark  central  portion  is  called 
the  umbra,  and  the  lighter  irregularly  shaded  grey 
portion  around  it  the  penumbra.  The  umbra  of  a 
spot  is  not  really  dark  but  only  relatively  so  with 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XXI.    The  Great  Sun-Spot  of  July  17,  1905 


The  Sun  289 

respect  to  the  brilliant  envelope  of  the  Sun — the  photo- 
sphere— as  it  is  actually  more  brilliant  than  the  electric 
arc.  Frequently  a  spot  will  be  seen  to  be  crossed  by 
one  or  more  brightly  shining  plume-like  projections 
called  "bridges"  (Plate  XXI.).  Generally  the  surface 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sun-spots  seems  more  or 
less  raised,  and  the  spots  themselves  are  usually  above 
the  general  surface  of  the  photosphere.  In  size,  sun- 
spots  vary  greatly,  ranging  from  five  hundred  to  fifty 
thousand  miles  in  diameter,  and  sometimes  a  penumbra 
surrounding  a  group  of  spots  will  measure  from  one  to 
two  hundred  thousand  miles  across.  The  area  of  one 
spot  photographed  at  Greenwich  in  March,  1905,  was 
nearly  forty  times  that  of  the  entire  surface  of  the  earth. 
Not  infrequently  sun-spots  are  large  enough  to  be 
seen  with  the  naked  eye,  either  when  the  sun  is  low  on 
the  horizon,  or  during  the  day,  through  a  piece  of 
smoked  or  coloured  glass.  Such  spots  as  can  be  seen 
with  the  unaided  eye,  it  may  be  noted,  are  at  least 
four  times  the  size  of  the  Earth.  About  thirteen  and  a 
half  days  (13  days,  14.5  hours)  are  required  for  a  spot 
to  travel  across  the  solar  disk  from  its  eastern  edge,  or 
limb,  to  the  western,  and  a  similar  period  of  time  to 
reappear  at  the  eastern  edge. 

A  rather  remarkable  fact  regarding  sun-spots  is 
that  they  are  more  numerous  at  some  seasons  than  at 
others,  and  that  they  increase  and  decrease  at  stated 
periods.  According  to  the  latest  researches,  the  aver- 
age length  of  the  sun-spot  cycle,  as  this  increase  and 
decrease  is  called,  is  n.i  years.  Usually  the  spot- 
maximum  follows  the  preceding  spot-minimum,  after 
about  four  and  a  half  years,  while  the  minimum  happens 
about  six  and  a  half  years  later  than  the  maximum. 
The  period,  however,  is  not  one  of  absolute  regularity, 
19 


290  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

a  variation  amounting  to  as  much  as  two  years  being 
possible  in  either  direction.  There  will  be  a  sun-spot 
maximum  in  1915.  Generally  the  spots  of  a  given 
period  are  first  seen  some  35°  from  the  solar  equator, 
and  as  the  period  progresses,  they  increase  in  size, 
reaching  their  greatest  numbers  when  their  latitude  is 
about  20°.  Then  they  begin  to  diminish  both  in  num- 
ber and  size  and  die  out  as  they  draw  toward  the 
equator. 

The  sun-spots  are  found  to  be  strong  magnetic  fields, 
and  their  periods  appear  to  coincide  closely  with  various 
magnetic  and  electric  phenomena  on  the  Earth.  When 
spots  are  numerous  on  the  Sun,  violent  magnetic  storms 
and  brilliant  auroras  are  found  to  be  numerous  on  the 
Earth.  Furthermore,  some  writers  say,  there  are 
reasons  for  believing  that  there  may  be  some  connec- 
tion between  the  average  temperature  and  rainfall  and 
the  relative  frequency  and  size  of  sun-spots. 

Besides  the  spots,  and  readily  seen  with  a  small 
instrument,  are  the  "faculae"  or  little  torches — bright 
ridges  or  patches  scattered  irregularly  over  the  solar 
surface.  They  are  from  one  thousand  to  more  than 
forty  thousand  miles  in  length,  and  from  about  one 
thousand  to  nearly  four  thousand  miles  in  breadth. 
They  appear  to  be  elevated  above  the  general  level, 
and  are  best  seen  near  the  edge  of  the  solar  disk.  The 
faculae  are  the  brightest  parts  of  the  Sun,  and  are  espe- 
cially abundant  and  active  in  the  vicinity  of  sun-spots. 
Unlike  the  spots,  however,  they  are  found  everywhere, 
except  in  polar  latitudes.  Moreover,  a  facula  standing 
alone  is  generally  looked  upon  as  the  precursor  of  a 
sun-spot  forming  at  that  site. 

Closely  connected  with  the  faculae  are  the  red  flames 
or  "prominences"  (Plate  XXII.),  which  like  the  sun- 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XXII. 


A  Large  Solar  Prominence  (two  views) 

(October  10,  1910) 


The  Sun  291 

spots  increase  and  decrease  about  every  eleven  years. 
They  are  projections  from  a  layer  of  prominent  gases 
— the  chromosphere — surrounding  the  photosphere. 
They  are  of  a  brilliant  red  colour — due  to  glowing 
hydrogen — when  viewed  in  profile,  at  the  edge  of  the 
sun,  but  white  when  seen  in  projection  against  the 
intensely  brilliant  solar  disk.  Their  average  height 
is  about  fifty  thousand  miles.  Occasionally,  however, 
they  attain  an  altitude  of  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  to  over  three  hundred  thousand  miles.  The 
velocity  of  their  ascent  varies  from  about  three  hundred 
to  over  five  hundred  miles  a  second.  On  October  7, 
1880,  Young  measured  a  prominence  and  found  it  to 
extend  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  miles  beyond 
the  edge  of  the  Sun,  and  Hale,  on  March  25,  1905,  with 
his  then  newly  invented  spectroheliograph,  photographed 
a  prominence  that  increased  from  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  thousand  to  two  hundred  and  eighty-one 
thousand  miles,  while  Rambaut,  at  Oxford,  noted  on 
November  15,  1907,  a  prominence  which  rose  to  a 
height  of  nearly  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  thou- 
sand miles.  Formerly  it  was  necessary  to  wait  for  a 
solar  eclipse  to  see  the  prominences,  but  now  they  are 
observable  at  any  time  in  broad  daylight,  with  the  aid 
of  the  spectroscope. 

Solar  prominences,  or  protuberances,  as  they  are 
sometimes  called,  are  broadly  divided  into  two  classes — 
the  eruptive, and  the  quiescent — which  differ  markedly 
both  in  size  and  character.  The  quiescent  promi- 
nences are  cloud-like  forms  composed  mainly  of  hydrogen 
and  helium  and,  though  found  over  all  parts  of  the 
Sun's  surface,  are  most  numerous  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  poles.  They  assume  all  kinds  of  shapes,  tend 
to  spread  horizontally,  and  are  frequently  of  large 


292  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

size.  While,  as  a  rule,  they  are  never  of  great  height, 
at  times  their  elevation  is  from  forty  thousand  to  sixty 
thousand  miles.  They  are  not  very  brilliant,  alter 
their  shape  but  slowly,  and  are,  in  form,  often  like  huge 
trees  with  spreading  tops.  The  eruptive  or  metallic 
prominences,  on  the  other  hand,  rush  outward,  with 
immense  speed  to  gigantic  heights,  and  change  their 
shape  and  size  with  great  rapidity.  The  velocity  of 
their  outward  rush  is  in  some  cases  as  high  as  six  hun- 
dred miles  a  second.  They  are  most  brilliant  and  fas- 
cinating objects,  but  are  usually  of  short  duration, 
seldom  lasting  over  half  an  hour  and  are  apparently 
composed  largely  of  metallic  vapours.  Sometimes 
they  spring  into  existence,  flame  up  to  prodigious  height, 
and  die  out  again,  all  within  two  or  three  minutes. 
They  appear  to  be  intimately  connected  with  the  for- 
mation of  sun-spots,  and  are  mostly  found  in  the  spot 
zones.  Some  of  the  masses  of  heated  gas  hurled  from 
the  eruptive  prominences  must,  it  is  evident,  pass 
beyond  the  solar  control,  since  the  Sun's  attraction 
is  unable  to  hold  back  any  matter  that  started  from 
its  surface  with  a  velocity  greater  than  three  hundred 
and  eighty-three  miles  a  second.  Escaping  into  space, 
these  masses  would  condense  into  solid  bodies  and  speed 
away  to  regions  unknown,  an  occasional  one,  per- 
chance, finding  its  way  to  one  of  the  planets. 

The  visible,  bright  surface  of  the  Sun — the  innermost 
portion  that  can  be  seen — is  the  "photosphere,"  or 
light  sphere.  It  is  a  white  cloud-like  covering,  com- 
posed largely  of  intensely  hot  metallic  vapours,  and 
from  it  comes  most  of  the  light  and  heat.  It  is  con- 
siderably darker  at  the  edge  than  toward  the  apparent 
centre  of  the  disk,  and  to  the  naked  eye  appears  rela- 
tively uniform  and  calm.  In  the  telescope  the  entire 


The  Sun  293 

surface  has  a  granulated  or  mottled  appearance,  which 
has  been  aptly  compared  to  that  of  a  piece  of  grey 
cloth  with  rice-grains  or  snowflakes  thickly  scattered 
over  it. 

Above  the  seething  photosphere  lies  the  relatively 
quiescent  "reversing  layer/'  which  is  composed  of 
glowing  gases,  and  varies  from  five  hundred  to  a  thou- 
sand miles  in  thickness.  It  is  somewhat  cooler  than 
the  photosphere,  and  contains  many  of  the  terrestrial 
elements  in  a  vaporous  state.  It  was  discovered  by 
Young,  by  means  of  the  spectroscope,  during  the  total 
solar  eclipse  of  1870.  Scattered  through  it,  and  close 
to  the  photosphere,  is  a  thin  cloud  of  small  particles, 
which  tends  to  reduce  somewhat  the  intensity  of  the 
light  radiated  from  the  photosphere. 

On  the  reversing  layer  rests  the  "chromosphere," 
or  colour  sphere,  the  upper  portion  of  which  is  in  a 
state  of  violent  agitation,  like  the  waves  of  the  storm- 
tossed  sea.  Like  the  prominences  which  rise  from  it, 
the  chromosphere  is  of  a  brilliant  scarlet  colour,  but 
its  redness  is  completely  overpowered  by  the  intensely 
white  light  of  the  photosphere  shining  through  it. 
It  is  from  five  thousand  to  ten  thousand  miles  in  depth, 
and  is  made  up  mainly  of  incandescent  hydrogen, 
helium,  and  calcium.  As  seen  through  a  telescope,  at 
a  total  solar  eclipse,  it  has  been  aptly  described  as 
like  "a  prairie  on  fire."  Like  the  prominences  the 
chromosphere  is  observable  at  any  time  with  the 
spectroscope. 

Next  in  order,  outside  the  chromosphere,  lies  the 
"corona,"  a  halo  of  pearly-white  light,  observed  only 
during  the  few  minutes  of  totality  of  a  solar  eclipse, 
that  streams  out  from  the  Sun  to  a  distance  of  several 
million  miles,  and  gradually  loses  itself  in  the  dark 


294  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

background  of  the  sky.  It  forms  a  charming  crown 
of  glory  to  the  eclipsed  Sun,  and  is  altogether  a  most 
beautiful  and  impressive  phenomenon,  a  reminder  of 
the  nimbus  or  halo  with  which  the  heads  of  saints  are 
encircled  in  works  of  art.  Its  shape  varies  in  close 
accordance  with  the  sun-spot  period,  and  its  light  is 
about  two  or  three  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  full 
moon. 

Sometimes,  as  when  appearing  at  the  time  of  spot- 
maximum,  it  sends  out  rays  and  streamers  in  all  direc- 
tions, in  a  manner  suggesting  the  rays  of  a  mammoth 
star.  At  other  times,  as  when  appearing  at  spot- 
minimum,  it  shows  two  great  wings  sometimes  of  most 
extraordinary  length,  extending  east  and  west  in 
the  direction  of  the  Sun's  equator,  and  a  number  of 
short,  plume-like  rays,  or  brushes  of  light,  round  the 
solar  poles.  The  late  Langley,  in  the  clear  air  of  Pike's 
Peak,  traced  the  vast  equatorial  wings  of  the  corona 
of  1878,  with  the  naked  eye,  to  nearly  twelve  million 
miles.  It  is  apparently  made  up  of  particles  of  exceed- 
ingly rarefied  matter  mingled  with  incandescent  gases, 
a  characteristic  constituent  of  which  is  an  element, 
unknown  on  earth,  called  Young's  coronium.  Accord- 
ing to  Mendeleeff,  this  element — coronium — is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  very  light  gas,  with  a  molecular  weight 
and  atomic  weight  about  one-tenth  that  of  helium. 

In  mythical  story,  the  Sun  was  considered  as  the 
god  of  day — the  Day  Star — and  was  accorded  divine 
honours.  Its  representative  in  the  Greek  pantheon  was 
Helios,  afterwards  identified,  though  not  completely  so, 
with  Phoebus  Apollo,  the  Sun-god;  and  to  the  Romans 
it  was  known  as  Sol.  Helios  was  the  son  of  Hyperion 
and  Thea,  and  a  brother  of  Selene  and  Eos.  He  was 
described  as  the  god  who  sees  and  hears  everything,  and 


U.  S.  Naval  Observatory,  Washington 

PLATE  XXIII.     Total  Eclipse  of  the  Sun,  with  Corona, 
May  28,  1900 


The  Sun  295 

by  Homer  was  alluded  to  as  giving  light  both  to  gods 
and  men.  His  symbol,  fire,  was  maintained  with  the 
utmost  care  upon  heathen  altars.  Moreover,  so  ex- 
ceedingly wide-spread  was  sun-worship,  that  the  idola- 
trous practice  seems  to  have  existed  at  some  period  in 
nearly  every  land.  Among  the  animals  particularly 
sacred  to  the  Sun  may  be  mentioned  the  cock. 

Like  the  stars,  the  Sun  was  supposed  to  rise  in  the 
east,  out  of  the  River  Oceanus,  traverse  the  heavens 
in  a  glowing  chariot,  and  descend  into  the  darkness  of 
the  west  and  Oceanus,  returning  during  the  night  in  a 
winged  boat  of  gold.  Another  legend  relates  that  he 
inhabited  a  most  magnificent  palace,  not  far  from  Col- 
chis, to  which  after  his  daily  drive  across  the  sky,  he 
was  conveyed  in  a  golden  boat  along  the  northern  coast 
of  the  Euxine,  now  the  Black  Sea.  The  horses  and 
chariot  with  which  he  traversed  the  heavens  are  first 
mentioned  in  the  Homeric  hymn  on  Helios. 

In  the  Vedas  of  the  Hindus  are  hymns  to  the  Sun,  as 
also  to  the  stars  and  the  dawn,  which  formed  a  sort  of 
ritual,  that  was  chanted  by  the  priests  at  sunset  and 
sunrise.  With  the  Egyptians  the  rising  sun  was  Horus, 
the  child-god,  and  the  setting  sun,  Osiris,  the  husband 
of  Isis.  In  the  myth  of  Horus,  as  depicted  on  Egyptian 
temple  walls,  Horus  was  represented  as  battling  with 
and  slaying  Typhon,  the  god  of  the  underworld,  who 
had  cruelly  murdered  and  mutilated  his  father  Osiris. 

Many  of  the  solar  temples  of  the  Egyptians  faced 
either  the  sunrise  or  the  sunset,  at  the  time  of  the 
summer  solstice,  while  others  were  oriented  to  the 
winter  solstice.  And  again,  nearly  all  the  Grecian 
temples  were  oriented  so  that  the  Sun  might  shine 
through  them  at  some  period  of  the  year.  The  cathe- 
drals of  the  Middle  Ages  were  mostly  oriented  to  the 


296  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

sunrise.  Furthermore,  many  of  the  old  English  ca- 
thedrals are  found  to  face  due  east,  or  to  the  sunrise 
on  the  festal  day  of  their  patron  saint.  At  Stonehenge 
(stone-circle)  on  Salisbury  plain,  about  two  miles  from 
Amesbury,  and  ninety  miles  south-west  of  London,  are 
the  imposing  ruins  of  an  ancient  sanctuary  erected 
about  three  thousand  years  ago,  and  probably  Druidi- 
cal,  where  a  single  large  rock  appears  so  placed  that  as 
the  Sun  rises  on  midsummer's  day  (June  2 1st),  its 
shadow  falls  on  the  central  so-called  altar. 

The  famous  Colossus  that  stood  at  the  entrance  of 
the  harbour  of  Rhodes  was  a  statue  of  the  Sun,  by 
Chares,  a  pupil  of  Lysippus.  It  was  erected  B.  c.  280, 
and  was  upward  of  105  feet  in  height.  It  stood,  how- 
ever, only  fifty-six  years,  as  it  was  overthrown  and 
broken  to  pieces  by  an  earthquake  B.  c.  224. 

In  Peru  the  worship  of  the  Sun  constituted  the 
peculiar  care  of  the  Incas.  In  the  capital  city  Cuzco — 
the  city  beloved  of  the  Sun — stood  a  magnificent  temple 
with  an  image  of  the  Sun  emblazoned  upon  the  western 
wall.  The  figure  was  engraved  on  a  massive  plate  of 
gold,  of  enormous  dimensions,  thickly  powdered  with 
emeralds  and  precious  stones.  It  was  so  situated  that 
when  the  huge  doors  of  the  eastern  portal  were  thrown 
open,  the  rays  of  the  rising  Sun  fell  full  upon  it. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MERCURY  AND  VENUS 

THE  planet  Mercury,  the  fast-flying  planet,  is  the 
smallest  of  the  Sun's  planet  family,  and  has  no  satellite 
circling  round  it.  There  are  recorded  observations  of 
it  made  nearly  three  centuries  before  the  Christian  era, 
although  the  ancient  astronomers  failed  to  recognise 
its  identity,  as  it  appeared  alternately  in  the  morning 
and  in  the  evening  sky.  For  a  time  it  was  supposed 
to  be  two  independent  planets,  and  to  these,  separate 
names  were  assigned.  By  the  Greeks,  the  morning  star 
was  called  Apollo,  and  the  evening  star  Mercury. 
Later,  however,  when  tjiese  were  found  to  be  one  and 
the  same  body,  the  name  Mercury  became  universally 
applied  to  it.  As  it  is  never  more  than  twenty-eight 
degrees  from  the  Sun,  it  is  comparatively  seldom  visible  to 
the  naked  eye,  and  then  only  when  it  is  near  one  elonga- 
tion or  the  other.  As  an  evening  star  it  is  best  seen  at 
eastern  elongations  in  the  spring,  and  at  western  elonga- 
tions in  the 'autumn.  Even  at  its  greatest  elongation, 
it  is  visible  for  only  about  an  hour  or  two  after  sunset, 
or  an  hour  or  two  before  sunrise.  At  the  most  favourable 
time  to  view  it — during  the  evening  exhibit  that 
happens  in  the  spring — it  will,  for  more  or  less  than 
a  week,  if  the  sky  is  clear,  be  readily  seen  in  the 
twilight  from  half  an  hour  to  an  hour  or  more  after 

297 


298  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

sundown.  The  eastern  elongations  for  1914  occur  on 
February  22  d,  June  i8th,  and  October  I5th,  and  the 
western  elongations  on  April  6th,  August  5th,  and 
November  23d. 

When  seen  with  the  naked  eye,  Mercury  sparkles  in 
the  sunset  glow  with  a  slightly  reddish  tint,  and  when 
viewed  through  the  telescope  at  midday  or  late  in  the 
afternoon,  its  colour  is  about  that  of  the  Moon  or  lighter. 
It  is  the  nearest  known  planet  to  the  Sun,  its  average 
distance  being  only  thirty-six  million  miles,  or  a  little 
less  than  two-fifths  that  of  the  Earth.  Its  orbit  is  so 
eccentric  that  the  actual  distance  of  the  planet  from 
the  Sun  varies  from  twenty-eight  and  a  half  million 
miles  at  perihelion  to  forty-three  and  a  half  million 
miles  at  aphelion.  Its  distance  from  the  Earth  varies 
from  forty-nine  million  miles  at  the  most  favourable 
inferior  conjunction,  to  one  hundred  and  thirty-six 
million  miles  at  the  most  remote  superior  conjunction. 
Its  period  of  revolution — its  sidereal  period,  or  true 
year — is  about  eighty-eight  terrestrial  days  (87.97), 
and  its  mean  synodic  period  (from  one  inferior  or 
superior  conjunction  to  the  next)  is  about  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  days.  The  latter  period  is  the  more  import- 
ant of  the  two  for  observational  purposes.  The  inclina- 
tion of  the  planet's  orbit  to  that  of  the  ecliptic  is 
about  seven  degrees. 

Owing  to  the  great  eccentricity  of  its  orbit,  Mercury's 
speed  varies  from  thirty -five  miles  a  second  at  perihe- 
lion to  only  twenty- three  at  aphelion,  so  that  its  mean 
orbital  velocity  is  about  twenty-nine  miles  a  second. 
The  variations  in  its  orbital  velocity  have  the  effect 
of  bringing  sometimes  part  of  one  edge,  and  sometimes 
part  of  the  other  edge  of  the  dark  hemisphere  into  the 
sunlight,  and  thus  give  rise  to  the  phenomenon  known 


Mercury  and  Venus  299 

as  libration.  When  the  planet  is  nearest  the  Sun,  it 
receives  nine  times  as  much  light  and  heat  as  the  Earth 
does,  but  when  farthest  away  from  it,  only  four  times 
as  much.  In  other  words,  it  receives  two  and  a  quarter 
times  more  light  and  heat  when  nearest  than  when 
farthest  from  the  Sun.  Then,  too,  it  makes  the  change 
from  one  position  to  the  other  within  the  comparatively 
short  period  of  six  weeks.  Like  Venus  and  the  Moon, 
Mercury  goes  through  phases  from  crescent  to  full. 
When  nearest  the  Earth  it  is  "new" ;  and  when  farthest 
away  it  is  "full."  At  the  two  intermediate  points  of 
its  planetary  path,  its  appearance  is  not  unlike  that  of 
the  Moon  at  its  first  and  third  quarters.  These  phases, 
which  are  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  are  readily  observ- 
able in  a  small  instrument. 

The  diameter  of  Mercury,  which,  until  recently,  was 
supposed  to  be  not  over  three  thousand  miles,  is 
actually  thirty-four  hundred  miles.  The  mass  and 
density  of  the  planet  are  not  known  with  any  degree 
of  accuracy,  although  its  average  density  is  believed 
to  be  somewhat  less  than  that  of  the  Earth — the  densest 
of  all  the  planets.  Its  mass  is  considered  to  be  so 
small,  however,  and  its  gravitative  power  so  weak,  that 
in  accordance  with  the  kinetic  theory  of  gases,  it  could 
not  hold  any  molecule  moving  faster  than  about  two  and 
a  half  miles  a  second,  and  as  the  molecules  of  but  few 
gases  move  thus  slowly,  one  would  not  expect  to  find 
much,  if  any,  atmosphere  on  the  planet.  It  has  the 
lowest  albedo,  or  light-reflecting  power,  in  the  local 
solar  system.  It  has  been  calculated  that  it  reflects 
only  about  thirteen  per  cent,  of  the  light  it  receives  from 
the  Sun,  eighty-seven  per  cent,  being  absorbed,  which 
shows  a  lack  of  clouds  and  suggests  also  a  scarcity  of 
atmosphere.  Clouds,  especially  white  clouds,  form  one 


300  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

of  the  most  highly  reflecting  surfaces  known,  giving 
out  about  seventy-two  per  cent,  of  the  light  that  falls 
upon  them. 

While  little,  if  anything,  is  known  as  to  the  surface 
conditions  existing  on  Mercury,  it  is  generally  conceded 
that  the  planet's  surface  is  rugged  and  mountainous, 
somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  Moon.  Its  force  of 
gravity  is  smaller  than  that  of  any  of  the  other 
planets,  being  a  little  less  than  one-quarter  that  of  the 
Earth.  Hence  a  man  weighing  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  on  the  Earth,  would  weigh  only  about  thirty- 
six  pounds  on  Mercury. 

From  a  study  of  the  faint  markings  noted  upon  it, 
the  idea  was  announced  in  1882,  by  the  late  Schia- 
parelli,  and  since  confirmed  by  many  observers,  notably 
Lowell,  that  the  planet  rotates  on  its  axis  once  during 
its  revolution  around  the  Sun.  Consequently  it  keeps 
always  the  same  side  toward  that  luminary,  as  the  Moon 
does  toward  the  Earth,  whilst  its  year  and  its  day 
are  of  equal  length,  namely  about  eighty-eight  terres- 
trial days.  Roughly  speaking,  the  temperature  on  the 
side  that  faces  toward  the  blazing,  dazzling  Sun  is 
over  three  hundred  degrees  above  zero,  while  on  the 
other  side  which  is  exposed  to  the  intense  cold  of  inter- 
planetary space,  it  is  more  than  four  hundred  and  fifty 
degrees  below.  It  has  been  estimated  that  about 
three-eights  of  the  total  surface  will  remain  in  perpetual 
darkness,  and  about  four -eights  in  continuous  sunlight, 
while,  as  a  result  of  the  planet's  great  libratory  swing, 
the  remaining  one-eighth  (a  zone  perpendicular  to  the 
equator  and  extending  from  pole  to  pole)  will  have 
alternately  day  and  night,  and  perhaps  something 
resembling  a  tolerable  temperature.  It  is  believed 
that  the  axis  of  the  planet  stands  plumb  to  its  orbit 


Mercury  and  Venus  301 

plane,  and  that  consequently  it  has  no  change  of  seasons 
such  as  the  Earth  enjoys. 

When,  as  occasionally  happens,  an  inferior  conjunc- 
tion occurs  at  the  time  the  planet  is  near  one  of  its 
nodes  (points  where  its  orbit  intersects  the  ecliptic), 
it  will  appear  to  cross  the  Sun's  disk,  as  the  Moon  does 
in  solar  eclipses.  This  phenomenon  is  called  a  transit 
of  Mercury,  and  though  of  no  great  astronomical 
importance,  is  of  no  small  interest  to  the  amateur. 
During  a  transit  the  planet  appears,  when  viewed  in 
a  small  telescope,  as  a  small,  black,  circular  spot,  against 
the  bright  solar  surface.  Since  the  Earth  passes  the 
line  of  nodes  on  May  7th  and  November  9th,  transits 
can  occur  only  near  those  days.  They  occur  more 
frequently  in  November  than  in  May,  because  Mercury 
is  then  much  nearer  the  Sun.  Their  mean  duration  is 
about  five  hours.  The  first  transit  ever  observed  was 
that  of  November  7,  1631,  by  Gassendi.  The  last 
transit  took  place  on  November  14,  1907,  and  the 
next  three  will  occur  on  November  7,  1914;  May  7, 
1924,  and  November  8,  1927.  * 

By  the  mythologists  Mercury  was  considered  as  a 
herald  and  messenger  of  the  gods,  and  was  called 
Hermes  by  the  Greeks,  and  Mercurius  by  the  Romans. 
The  Greek  Hermes  was  a  son  of  Jupiter  and  Maia,  the 
daughter  of  Atlas,  and  was  one  of  the  twelve  great 
gods  of  Olympus.  He  was  endowed  with  shrewdness 
and  sagacity,  combined  with  cunning  and  the  inclina- 
tion to  lie  and  steal.  A  few  hours  after  his  birth,  as 
the  legend  runs,  he  escaped  from  his  cradle  in  a  cave 
at  Mount  Cyllene  in  Arcadia,  went  to  Pieria  and 
carried  off  some  of  Apollo's  oxen.  Among  other 
things,  he  is  said  to  have  run  off  with  the  sceptre  of 
Jove,  the  sword  of  Mars,  the  trident  of  Neptune, 


302  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

and  the  magic  girdle  of  Venus.  He  was  the  patron 
of  orators,  merchants,  tradespeople,  travellers,  and 
thieves,  and  conducted  the  shades  of  the  dead  from  the 
upper  into  the  lower  world.  Mercury  was  likewise  the 
patron  of  all  gymnastic  games  of  the  Greeks,  and  is 
said  to  have  been  the  author  of  a  variety  of  inventions. 
He  was  regarded  as  the  maintainer  of  peace  and  as  the 
god  of  roads.  His  attributes  were  a  travelling  hat  with 
broad  brim,  a  staff  given  to  him  by  Apollo,  and  a  pair 
of  beautiful  golden  sandals,  which  carried  him  across 
land  and  sea  with  the  rapidity  of  the  wind.  At  the 
ankles  the  sandals  were  provided  with  wings.  Among 
the  things  sacred  to  him  were  the  tortoise,  the  palm- 
tree,  and  the  number  four. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  Goad,  an  old  English 
writer,  humorously  termed  the  dwarfish  planet,  "a 
squinting  lacquey  of  the  sun,  who  seldom  shows  his 
head  in  these  parts,  as  if  he  were  in  debt." 

Venus 

Next  Venus,  matchless  for  her  brilliant  light, 
Seems  as  the  lesser  Cynthia  of  the  night. 

BROWN. 

The  best  known  of  all  the  planets  is  Venus,  often 
called  the  Earth's  "twin-sister."  When  near  its  ex- 
treme eastern  or  western  elongation,  it  is  the  most 
brilliant  and  beautiful  object  in  the  heavens,  the  Sun 
and  Moon  excepted.  Its  dazzling,  silvery  light  is 
often  so  intense  that  on  moonless  nights  it  casts  quite 
a  distinct  shadow.  Its  brilliancy  when  at  its  greatest 
(Plate  XXVIII.)  has  been  estimated  at  about  nine 
times  that  of  Sirius,  the  brightest  of  all  the  stars,  and 
five  times  that  of  Jupiter.  It  is  ordinarily  best  viewed 


Mercury  and  Venus  303 

in  the  twilight  or  just  before  dawn,  when  the  faint 
light  of  day  takes  off  from  its  glare. 

It  is  extremely  beautiful  even  in  a  good  field-glass 
or  prism  binocular,  and  in  an  instrument  equatorially 
mounted,  can  be  readily  seen  in  broad  daylight.  Like 
Mercury,  it  swings  back  and  forth  on  either  side  of 
the  Sun,  and  never  departs  far  from  that  luminary, 
its  farthest  distance  being  forty-seven  degrees.  And 
again,  it  never  gets  higher  in  the  heavens  than  forty- 
five  degrees,  which  is  half-way  up  to  the  zenith. 

When  east  of  the  Sun,  Venus  may  be  seen  in  the 
western  sky,  and  is  an  evening  star;  when  west  of  the 
Sun,  it  rises  before  dawn,  and  appears  in  the  eastern 
sky  as  a  morning  star.  It  shines  as  an  evening  star 
from  superior  to  inferior  conjunction  for  nine  and  a 
half  months,  and  as  a  morning  star  from  inferior  to 
superior  conjunction  for  about  the  same  length  of 
time,  remaining,  in  either  case,  visible  anywhere  from 
seven  to  eight  months.  It  reaches  its  greatest  bril- 
liancy some  thirty-six  days  before  and  after  inferior 
conjunction.  At  its  greatest  eastern  elongation,  it  is 
visible  for  as  much  as  three  and  a  half  hours  after  sun- 
down, and  at  its  greatest  western  elongation  for  about 
the  same  length  of  time  before  dawn.  It  will  be  in 
superior  conjunction  in  1914  on  February  nth,  and 
from  the  latter  part  of  March  to  November  will  be  the 
most  brilliant  and  beautiful  object  in  the  western  sky. 
Then,  too,  on  August  5th,  rather  more  than  a  month 
before  greatest  eastern  elongation,  it  will  pass  within 
one-sixth  of  a  degree  of  the  planet  Mars.  Furthermore, 
it  will  be  again  at  its  best  as  an  evening  star  in  April, 
1916,  December,  1917,  and  July,  1919,  and  as  a  morning 
star  in  February,  1915,  September,  I9i6,and  April,  1918. 

The  ancients  supposed  Venus,  the  Mater  Amorum, 


304  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

to  be  two  separate  stars,  calling  it  Phosphorus  or 
Lucifer,  when  appearing  in  the  morning  sky,  and 
Hesperus  or  Vesper,  when  appearing  in  the  evening 
sky. 

Phosphor  she's  termed  when  morning  beams  she  yields; 
And  Hesp'rus  when  her  rays  the  evening  gilds. 

BROWN. 

The  identification  of  Hesperus  with  Phosphorus  is 
supposed  to  have  been  first  made  by  the  celebrated 
sage  of  Samos,  Pythagoras.  It  is  said  that  the  Basutos 
still  differentiate  the  morning  and  evening  Venus. 
In  a  two-inch  telescope  Venus,  like  Mercury,  exhibits 
phases  (Fig.  7.),  appearing,  when  farthest  from  the 
Earth,  like  the  full  moon,  then  gibbous,  then  like  a  half 
moon,  then  as  a  crescent,  and  finally,  when  nearest 
to  the  Earth,  like  the  new  moon.  Its  synodic  period 
covers  nearly  584  days,  or  rather  less  than  one  year  and 
four  months.  The  corresponding  sidereal  period,  or  true 
year  of  the  planet,  is  a  little  less  than  225  days  (224.7), 
or  not  quite  two-thirds  as  long  as  the  terrestrial  year. 

The  average  distance  of  Venus  from  the  Sun  is 
67,200,000  miles.  Its  orbit  is  more  nearly  circular 
than  that  of  any  other  planet,  the  eccentricity  (0.0068) 
being  so  small  that  the  difference  between  its  greatest 
and  least  distance  from  the  Sun  is  less  than  a  million 
miles.  When  nearest  to  the  Earth,  it  is  approximately 
twenty-five  million  miles  away,  but  when  at  its  greatest 
distance,  owing  to  the  situation  of  the  two  bodies  in  their 
orbits,  it  is  somewhat  over  135  million  miles  farther 
off.  It  has  an  orbital  velocity  of  twenty-one  miles  a 
second,  and,  like  Mercury,  has  no  satellite.  Its  dia- 
meter is  7630  miles,  or  not  quite  three  hundred  miles 
less  than  the  Earth's  diameter.  It  is  a  more  perfect 


Mercury  and  Venus  305 

sphere  than  is  the  Earth,  being  very  little  flattened  at 
the  poles,  or  bulged  at  the  equator.  Its  mass  is  about 
0.82,  its  density  about  0.89,  and  its  surface  gravity 
about  0.86  that  of  the  Earth.  Being  so  much  nearer 
the  Sun  it  receives  nearly  twice  (1.9)  as  much  solar 
light  and  heat  as  does  the  Earth.  It  reflects  about 
seventy  per  cent,  of  the  light  which  falls  upon  it,  or 
about  the  same  as  that  reflected  by  newly  fallen  snow. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  its  atmosphere  is  about 
twice  as  dense  as  that  of  the  Earth,  and  full  of  clouds. 
Moreover,  the  peculiar  brilliancy  of  Venus  is  thought 
by  many  to  be,  in  great  part,  due  to  its  cloud-laden 
atmosphere.  Lowell  and  some  others,  however,  deny 
that  Venus  is  a  cloud- wrapped  planet,  and  consider 
that  it  owes  its  great  lustre  largely  to  its  not  being 
cloud-covered.  Its  gravity  is  such  that  no  molecule 
of  gas  coming  within  the  influence  of  its  attraction,  and 
travelling  with  a  less  speed  than  6.37  miles  a  second, 
can  escape  from  it. 

Concerning  the  rotation  time  of  Venus,  opinions 
differ  greatly.  Until  about  twenty-five  years  ago,  it 
was  generally  supposed  that  both  it  and  Mercury  ro- 
tated on  their  axes  in  a  period  approximately  twenty- 
four  hours  long.  Now,  while  some  astronomers, 
notably  Trouvelot,  Belopolsky,  and  See,  still  hold 
that  it  spins  around  in  about  twenty-three  hours 
and  twenty-one  minutes,  other  observers,  including 
Schiaparelli,  Perrotin,  and  Lowell,  believe  that,  like 
Mercury,  it  turns  on  its  axis  in  the  same  time  that  it 
revolves  about  the  Sun.  In  the  former  case,  the  day 
would  be  only  a  little  shorter  than  the  terrestrial  day, 
and  in  the  latter  it  would  be  equal  to  the  planet's 
year.  While  the  question  must  still  be  considered 
as  an  open  one,  and  far  from  being  definitely  set- 

20 


3O6  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

tied,  the  balance  of  evidence  seems,  at  present,  to 
favour  the  opinion  that  the  planet's  periods  of  rota- 
tion and  of  revolution  are  the  same,  namely,  about 
225  terrestrial  days,  the  result  being  that  it,  like  Mer- 
cury, turns  one  face  ever  toward  the  sun.  On  practi- 
cally one-half  of  its  surface,  therefore,  there  is  perpetual 
sunlight,  and  on  the  other  half  everlasting  darkness. 
The  fact  that  both  telescopic  and  spectroscopic  observa- 
tions have  indicated  to  astronomers  of  equal  reputation 
both  the  short  day  and  no  day  at  all,  is,  to  say  the 
least,  unfortunate,  and  yet  it  is  altogether  likely  that 
in  time  a  way  will  be  found  of  determining  beyond 
doubt  the  actual  rotation  period  of  the  veiled  planet. 

The  axis  of  Venus  is  so  nearly  perpendicular  to  the 
plane  of  its  orbit,  being  inclined  only  about  three  and  a 
half  degrees,  that  the  planet  can  have  no  changes  of 
seasons  to  speak  of.  Its  climates  must  rather  be  dis- 
posed in  zones,  with  practically  continuous  summer 
in  the  equatorial,  perpetual  winter  in  the  polar,  and 
eternal  spring  in  the  middle  zone. 

Owing  to  the  dense  atmosphere  which  surrounds  it, 
little,  if  anything,  is  known  of  the  physical  condition 
of  the  planet.  The  observations  of  Lowell,  however, 
record  peculiar  and  perfectly  distinct  radial  markings 
on  the  disk,  which  their  discoverer  regarded  as  per- 
manent features,  and  from  which  he  confirmed  Schia- 
parelli's  theory  in  regard  to  its  rotation  period.  A 
rather  curious  feature,  the  nature  of  which  is  not  yet 
fully  understood,  is  the  dusky  illumination  of  the  dark 
side,  which  is  occasionally  seen.  It  is  an  appearance 
somewhat  similar  to  that  unique  illumination,  earth- 
shine,  and  is  frequently  termed  the  "phosphorescence." 
It  is  thought  by  some  to  be  of  electrical  origin,  and 
by  others  to  be  only  a  ghostlike  gleam  from  the  vast 


Mercury  and  Venus  307 

sheet  of  ice  and  snow  on  the  dark  and  sunless  side  of  the 
planet. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  Venus  passes  across  the 
disk  of  the  Sun,  from  east  to  west,  as  Mercury  does. 
The  planet  then  appears  as  a  round,  black  spot,  easily 
seen  in  the  telescope,  or,  at  times,  even  by  the  naked 
eye  through  a  suitable  shade-glass.  This  passage  of 
the  planet  across  the  Sun's  disk  is  called  a  Transit  of 
Venus,  and  when  central  occupies  about  eight  hours.  It 
is  an  extremely  rare  phenomenon,  not  more  than  five 
transits  having  ever  been  observed.  The  first  was  seen 
by  only  two  persons — Jeremiah  Horrox,  a  curate  of 
the  English  Church  at  Hoole  in  Lancashire,  and  his 
young  friend,  William  Crab  tree,  a  draper  of  Brought  on, 
near  Manchester — on  Sunday  afternoon,  December 
4,  1639,  and  the  last  occurred  on  December  6,  1882. 
The  transits  happen  in  pairs,  and  can  occur  only  when 
the  Earth  and  planet  are  near  the  point  where  their 
orbits  intersect.  The  transits  forming  a  pair  are  sepa- 
rated by  intervals  of  eight  years,  while  the  successive 
pairs  are  separated  by  intervals  of  105^  and  121^ 
years.  The  next  pair  of  transits  will  occur  on  June 
8,  2004,  and  June  6,  2012.  As  Venus  is  entering  upon 
or  leaving  the  solar  disk  in  a  transit,  the  outline  of 
its  dark  body  is  seen  surrounded  by  a  tiny  luminous 
ring,  due  it  is  supposed  to  refraction,  reflection,  and 
dispersion  of  light  by  the  planet's  dense  atmosphere. 
Formerly  these  transits  were  of  great  importance  to 
astronomers,  as  they  were  believed  to  furnish  the 
most  certain  and  accurate  means  of  determining  the 
Sun's  distance.  Now,  however,  since  other  and  better 
methods  of  solving  the  problem  of  the  solar  parallax 
have  been  developed,  the  transit  has  lost  somewhat 
of  its  former  importance,  its  scientific  value  being 


308  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

limited  mainly  to  whatever  opportunity  it  may  afford 
for  investigating  the  nature  of  the  planet's  atmosphere. 

Among  the  Romans,  Venus  was  the  goddess  of  love 
and  beauty  and  was  later  identified  with  the  Greek 
Aphrodite,  who  appears  to  have  been  identical  with 
Astarte,  called  by  the  Hebrews  Ashtoreth.  In  the 
Iliad,  Aphrodite  is  represented  as  the  daughter  of 
Jupiter  and  Dione,  but  the  poets  most  frequently 
relate  that  she  sprang  from  the  foam  of  the  sea.  She  is 
commonly  represented  as  the  wife  of  Vulcan,  but  she 
proved  faithless  to  her  husband,  and  was  in  love  with 
Mars  and  several  other  gods,  as  also  with  the  mortals 
Anchises,  Adonis,  and  Butes.  Her  worship,  as  Venus, 
was  promoted  by  Caesar,  who  traced  his  descent  from 
./Eneas,  who  was  supposed  to  be  the  son  of  Mars  and 
Venus.  She  surpassed  all  the  other  goddesses  in  beauty, 
and  hence  received  the  prize  of  beauty  from  Paris. 
She  also  had  the  power  of  granting  beauty  and  invin- 
cible charms  to  others,  and  whoever  wore  her  magic 
girdle,  at  once  became  an  object  of  love  and  desire. 
The  month  of  April,  as  the  beginning  of  spring,  was 
thought  to  be  particularly  sacred  to  her. 

To  the  Peruvians,  Venus  was  known  by  the  name  of 
Chasca,  or  the  "youth  with  the  long  curling  locks," 
and  was  adored  as  the  page  of  the  Sun.  By  the  Arabs 
she  was  called  El  Zorah,  the  "Splendour  of  Heaven," 
and  has  been  identified  with  Isaiah's  "Lucifer,  son  of 
the  morning"  (Isaiah  xiv.,  12). 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  EARTH,  THE  TIDES,  AND  TIME 

TREATED  as  an  .astronomic  body,  the  Earth  is  a  planet 
—the  third  in  order  from  the  Sun — travelling  in  space 
like  the  other  members  of  the  solar  system.  It  is  a 
rotating  globe,  turning  on  its  imaginary  axis  from 
west  to  east  once  in  about  every  twenty-four  hours 
(23  hrs.,  56  min.,  4.1  sees.).  Viewed  from  Mercury 
or  Venus  it  is  the  brightest  object  in  the  heavens,  lit 
up  by  the  light  it  receives  from  the  Sun.  It  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  originally  a  knot  in  the  great  parent 
nebula,  that  grew  slowly  outward  to  its  present  mass 
by  the  continual  addition  of  planet esimal  fragments. 
Its  shape  is  very  nearly  that  of  an  oblate  spheroid,  or 
roughly  like  that  of  an  orange,  though  the  amount  of 
flattening  at  the  poles  is  very  small.  The  equatorial 
diameter  is  about  twenty-seven  miles  greater  than  the 
polar,  the  former  being  about  7926  miles  and  the  latter 
7899  miles. 

The  measurement  around  the  equator  is  about  24,- 
899  miles,  and  the  curving  of  its  surface  is  at  the  rate  of 
about  eight  inches  in  every  mile.  The  average  distance 
of  the  planet  from  the  sun  is  92,820,000  miles.  It  re- 
volves around  that  luminary  from  west  to  east,  in  an 
orbit  about  585,000,000  miles  long  in  about  365}^ 
days  (365  days,  6  hrs.,  9  min.,  and  8.97  sees,  of  mean 
solar  time),  which  forms  its  year,  at  the  rate  of  about 

3°9 


310  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

eighteen  and  one-half  miles  a  second,  or  about  one 
and  a  half  million  miles  a  day.  On  account  of  the 
eccentricity  of  its  orbit,  which  amounts  to  not  quite 
one- sixtieth  (0.016) ,  it  is  some  3  r0  million  miles  nearer  to 
the  Sun  in  winter  (in  the  northern  hemisphere)  than  in 
summer,  and  moreover  the  Sun  looks  about  one- 
eighteenth  broader  than  when  at  its  greatest  distance. 
The  planet's  mean  density,  taken  through  and  through, 
compared  with  that  of  water,  is  found  to  be  about 
5.53.  At  the  Earth's  centre  the  density  must  be  much 
greater  than  at  the  surface,  equal  probably  to  that  of 
the  heavier  metals. 

The  total  mass  of  the  planet  has  been  estimated  as 
equivalent  to  a  weight  of  about  sixty-five  hundred 
million  million  million  tons,  and  its  age  has  recently 
been  stated  by  Chamberlin  to  be  not  less  than  four 
hundred  million  years.  Up  to  a  comparatively  recent 
date  it  was  quite  generally  supposed  that  the  Earth's 
interior  must  be  in  a  molten  state,  owing  to  the  high 
temperatures  existing  there.  Now,  however,  scientific 
men  believe  that  the  Earth  as  a  whole  is  more  or  less 
solid  throughout,  except  perhaps  in  isolated  places 
where  collections  of  molten  matter  may  exist.  Further- 
more, it  is  thought  that  it  has  a  rigidity,  when  con- 
sidered in  its  entirety,  twice  as  great  as  that  of  steel. 
According  to  Sollas,  the  mean  rate  of  rise  of  under- 
ground temperatures  is  about  i°  F.,  for  every  80  or 
90  feet  of  descent.  It  varies  greatly,  however,  at 
different  places.  In  the  Calumet  and  Hecla  Mine, 
Lake  Superior,  which  is  4989  feet  in  depth,  the  rate  varies 
from  i°  F.  in  103  feet  to  i°  F.  in  95  feet.  The  deepest 
boring  is  that  made  by  the  Austrian  Government  in 
Silesia,  and  is  a  mile  and  a  quarter  in  depth.  From 
these  and  other  estimates,  taking  even  the  lowest  rate 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      311 

of  increase  of  temperature,  it  is  apparent  that  if  it 
continues  to  great  depths,  the  temperature  of  the 
interior  must  be  very  high.  And  yet,  as  the  pressures 
on  the  earth's  interior  are  presumably  enormous,  it  is 
justifiable,  without  stretching  probability  too  far,  to 
assume  that  the}r  tend  to  keep  the  matter  in  a  solid 
state  in  spite  of  the  high  temperature.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  the  pressure  at  the  centre  of  the  Earth 
is  equivalent  to  three  million  times  the  pressure  of  the 
atmosphere  at  the  Earth's  surface,  or  about  forty-five 
million  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 

The  terrestrial  surface  contains  about  197,000,000 
square  miles  and  is  divided  into  two  wide  areas  of 
land  and  water,  of  which  about  one-fourth  is  land 
and  about  three-fourths  water.  The  northern  hem- 
isphere contains  about  three  times  as  much  land  as 
the  southern,  and  the  eastern  hemisphere  about  two 
and  a  half  times  as  much  as  the  western.  Like  the 
face  of  the  land,  the  bed  of  the  ocean  is  marked  by 
elevations  and  depressions,  for  it  has  its  mountains 
and  valleys,  as  well  as  its  plains  and  plateaus  of  grey 
ooze.  The  difference  between  the  average  height  of 
the  continents  and  the  average  depth  of  the  oceans  is 
about  three  miles.  The  plateau  of  Tibet  is  about 
three  miles  above  sea-level,  and  the  bottom  of  the  great 
Tuscarora  Deep  is  about  five  miles  below  sea-level, 
making  a  difference  in  range  of  eight  miles. 

The  apex,  of  the  loftiest  known  mountain,  Mount 
Everest  in  the  Himalayas,  is  29,002  feet  above  sea- 
level,  and  the  bottom  of  the  deepest  ocean  pit,  about 
forty  miles  off  the  north  coast  of  Mindanao,  one  of 
the  Philippine  Islands,  is  32,086  feet  below  sea-level, 
making  a  difference  in  range — the  greatest  known — of 
over  eleven  and  a  half  miles.  It  has  been  calculated 


3i2  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

by  Chamberlin  and  Salisbury,  that  were  all  the  conti- 
nents rubbed  down,  and  all  the  oceans  silted  up,  so 
that  the  Earth  was  a  perfectly  smooth  ball,  it  would  be 
covered  everywhere  by  its  waters  to  a  depth  of  nearly 
two  miles.  And  again,  geologists  estimate  that  the 
general  shrinkage  of  the  planet,  which  they  believe  is 
going  on,  carrying  down  land  surface  and  sea-bottom, 
has  resulted  in  lessening  its  radius  by  some  thirty-two 
miles. 

Surrounding  the  spinning  Earth  is  a  gaseous  envelope 
of  limited  depth  called  the  air,  or  the  atmosphere, 
which  is  held  to  it  by  gravitation,  and  rotates  together 
with  it,  and  upon  the  presence  of  which  nearly  all  forms 
of  life  on  earth  depend.  Roughly  speaking,  it  is  made 
of  nitrogen  and  oxygen,  together  with  small  quantities  of 
other  elements,  such  as  argon,  neon,  xenon,  krypton, 
and  helium,  and  some  compounds  such  as  carbon 
dioxide  and  water  vapour.  About  one-fifth  by  vol- 
ume is  oxygen,  three-fourths  nitrogen,  three-  or  four- 
hundredths  of  one  per  cent,  carbon  dioxide,  and  a 
variable  proportion  water  vapour.  It  is  densest  near 
the  surface  of  the  Earth  and  becomes  less  and  less  dense 
away  from  it,  the  density  at  a  height  of  three  and  a 
half  miles  being  approximately  one-half  that  at  the 
surface.  Moreover,  it  seems  that  for  every  three  and 
a  half  miles  of  ascent,  the  density  of  the  atmosphere  di- 
vides by  two.  The  atmospheric  strata  have  been  com- 
pared by  Shaw  to  the  coats  of  an  onion,  and  Rotch  has 
shown  that,  at  a  height  of  several  miles,  there  is  a  layer 
called  a  "reversing  layer,"  where  temperature  ceases  to 
fall  with  increasing  height. 

Although  it  is  impossible  to  determine  exactly  where 
the  Earth's  atmosphere  ceases,  there  are  reasons  for 
believing  that  it  may  extend  as  far  as  one  hundred 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      313 

to  two  hundred  miles,  and  beyond  that  can  be  said 
practically  not  to  exist.  Theoretically,  however,  its 
height  is  much  greater,  as  in  all  probability  it  does  not 
entirely  cease  to  exist  till  the  limits  of  the  Earth's 
gravitative  influence,  some  620,000  miles  off,  are 
passed.  In  the  thin  height  of  the  terrestrial  at- 
mosphere, any  gas  molecules  flying  upwards  with  a 
velocity  greater  than  6ffo  miles  a  second  will  pass  be- 
yond the  limits  of  the  Earth's  attraction  and  never 
return.  And  again,  any  wandering  molecules  of  gas 
journeying  through  the  solar  system,  which  happen  to 
come  within  the  limits  of  the  Earth's  influence,  will  be 
captured  by  the  planet.  In  this  connection  it  may  be 
noted,  however,  that  as  the  molecules  of  nitrogen  and 
oxygen,  which  enter  largely  into  the  composition  of  the 
atmosphere,  move  with  a  velocity1  far  below  that 
necessary  for  escape  from  the  Earth,  there  is  no  danger 
of  the  Earth's  losing  its  aerial  envelope  rapidly. 

The  weight  of  the  atmosphere,  as  calculated  by  the 
late  Mendeleeff,  is  fifty-one  hundred  billion  tons.  Its 
pressure  at  sea-level  is  about  14.1-0  pounds  to  the  square 
inch.  Hence,  on  the  body  of  an  adult  person,  averag- 
ing some  two  thousand  square  inches  of  surface,  the 
pressure  amounts  to  about  fifteen  tons.  The  air  is  a 
common  medium  of  sound  transmission,  sounds  being 
any  vibrations  that  are  capable  of  being  perceived  by 
the  ear.  The  velocity  of  sound  in  the  air  at  the  tem- 
perature 32°  F.  is  1090.5  feet  a  second,  and  the  increase 
in  velocity  due  to  rise  in  temperature  is  I A  feet  for 
each  degree  of  Fahrenheit.  The  velocity  of  sound  in 
liquids  is  over  four  times  as  great  as  in  air,  and  in  solids 
from  eleven  to  fifteen  times  as  great. 

1  The  maximum  velocity  of  the  molecules  of  oxygen  is  1.8  miles  a 
second,  that  of  nitrogen  2  miles,  and  that  of  water  vapour  2.5  miles. 


314  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Astronomically,  a  most  important  effect  of  the 
atmosphere  is  its  power  of  refracting  light.  When  a 
ray  of  light  passes  from  an  optically  rarer  to  an  opti- 
cally denser  medium,  it  deviates  from  a  straight  course, 
and  is  bent  toward  the  perpendicular  to  the  surface  at 
that  point.  On  the  other  hand,  when  it  passes  from  an 
optically  denser  to  an  optically  rarer  medium,  it  is 
bent  from  the  perpendicular  toward  a  horizontal.  This 
bending  of  the  ray  is  called  refraction.  The  amount 
of  refraction  is  zero  for  a  body  at  the  zenith,  and  in- 
creases gradually  toward  the  horizon,  where  it  is  a  trifle 
over  half  a  degree,  or  a  little  more  than  the  greatest 
apparent  diameter  of  either  the  Sun  or  the  Moon. 

The  light  from  a  celestial  object,  as  it  passes  down 
through  the  atmosphere  from  vacant  space,  enters  a 
medium,  the  density  of  which  continuously  increases, 
and  is  in  consequence  refracted  or  bent  toward  the 
Earth  or  toward  a  perpendicular.  On  account  of  the 
refraction,  the  apparent  position  of  such  object  is  dif- 
ferent from  the  exact  position,  and  hence  in  making 
observations  to  determine  the  exact  position  of  a 
celestial  object,  correction  has  to  be  made  for  the 
effects  of  atmospheric  refraction.  For  this  purpose 
tables  of  refraction  have  been  prepared  showing  the 
amount  of  refraction  for  every  degree  of  altitude  from 
the  horizon  to  the  zenith.  It  is  the  refraction  of  the 
clouds,  which,  it  may  be  noted,  do  not  reach  an  altitude 
above  ten  or  twelve  miles,  that  gives  to  the  sky  its 
beautiful  colours  morning  and  evening.  And  again, 
on  account  of  atmospheric  refraction  the  Sun  seems  to 
rise  about  three  minutes  earlier,  and  to  set  about  three 
minutes  later  than  it  otherwise  would  do,  thereby 
lengthening  each  day  about  six  minutes.  When 
either  the  Sun  or  the  Moon  is  on  the  horizon,  the  rays 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      315 

from  the  upper  edge  are  refracted  less  than  those  from 
the  lower  edge.  The  lower  edge  of  the  disk  being 
apparently  raised  more  than  the  upper  makes  either 
celestial  body  appear  flattened  in  the  vertical  direction. 
Moreover,  when  the  lower  edge  of  either  body  is  seen 
apparently  resting  upon  the  horizon,  its  whole  disk  is 
in  reality  below  it. 

The  glow  of  light  after  sunset  and  before  sunrise, 
known  as  "twilight,"  is  caused  partly  by  refraction, 
but  mainly  by  reflection  of  the  Sun's  rays  from  the  solid 
particles  in  the  upper  atmosphere.  In  the  evening 
the  twilight  lingers  till  the  Sun  sinks  some  eighteen 
degrees  below  the  horizon,  and  in  the  morning  the 
day  begins  to  dawn  when  the  Sun  arrives  within  some 
eighteen  degrees  of  it.  Generally,  it  may  be  said,  the 
duration  of  twilight  varies  with  the  latitude,  the 
seasons,  and  the  condition  of  the  atmosphere.  In 
these  latitudes  the  shortest  twilight  occurs  in  winter, 
and  the  longest  in  summer. 

It  has  been  calculated  that  the  Earth's  atmosphere 
absorbs  about  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  radiations  which 
come  to  it  from  the  Sun,  part  of  the  heat  thus  absorbed 
being  later  radiated  out  into  space  and  part  of  it  to- 
ward the  Earth.  Accordingly,  the  atmosphere  tends, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  keep  down  the  temperature  during 
the  middle  of  the  day,  and  on  the  other  hand  aids  in 
maintaining  the  surface  warmth  at  night.  Then,  too, 
it  prevents,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  radiation  from 
the  surface  of  the  Earth  at  night.  There  is  little  or  no 
danger  of  a  frost  on  a  cloudy  night,  as  the  clouds,  by 
their  blanket-light  action,  keep  in  the  radiations  from 
the  Earth,  and  prevent  the  temperature  dropping 
below  the  freezing  point.  When,  however,  the  atmos- 
phere is  clear  and  relatively  free  from  water  vapour, 


316  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

it  does  not  catch  the  heat  which  the  Earth  is  radiating, 
and  in  consequence  the  temperature  drops  more  rapidly 
and  to  a  lower  point. 

To  the  rotation  of  the  Earth  on  its  axis  from  west  to 
east,  once  in  about  twenty-four  hours,  is  due  the 
phenomenon  of  day  and  night,  while  to  the  Earth's 
revolution  around  the  Sun,  and  the  inclination  of  its 
axis  to  its  orbit,  which  is  twenty- three  degrees  and 
twenty-seven  minutes,  are  due  the  variations  of  the 
seasons,  and  the  differing  lengths  of  day  and  night  in 
various  parts  of  the  globe.  Moreover,  in  Holy  Writ 
is  the  assurance  that  "while  the  Earth  remaineth, 
seed-time  and  harvest,  and  cold  and  heat,  and  summer 
and  winter,  and  day  and  night,  shall  not  cease" 
(Genesis  viii.,  22).  . 

About  the  2ist  of  June,  the  summer  solstice,  the 
northern  hemisphere  is  tilted  toward  the  Sun  at  its 
greatest  inclination,  and  the  period  of  longest  daylight 
occurs.  At  this  time  the  Sun  rises  and  sets  north  of  the 
east  and  west  points,  is  high  in  the  heavens,  and  at  this 
latitude  remains  about  eighteen  hours  above  the  horizon. 
It  is  now  midsummer  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  and 
midwinter  and  the  shortest  day  in  the  southern. 
After  the  solstice  is  past,  the  Sun  begins  to  descend 
toward  the  equator,  but  as  the  amount  of  solar  heat 
received  during  the  day  is  greater  than  that  radiated 
away  at  night,  the  mean  temperature  continues  to 
rise.  Owing  to  this  more  or  less  steady  temperature 
increase,  which  may  be  prolonged  for  some  six  weeks, 
the  hottest  days  of  summer  are  not  experienced  until 
about  the  latter  part  of  July  or  early  in  August.  At  the 
autumnal  equinox  on  the  23d  of  September,  the  axis 
of  the  Earth  is  upright  relative  to  the  Sun,  which  now 
crosses  the  equator,  and  there  is  equal  day  and  night 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      3^7 

all  over  the  world.  The  Sun  rises  and  sets  exactly 
in  the  east  and  west  points,  rising  at  6  A.M.  and  setting 
at  6  P.M.  It  is  now  autumn  in  the  northern  and  spring 
in  the  southern  hemisphere. 

After  the  autumnal  equinox,  the  northern  hemisphere 
tilts  more  and  more  away  from  the  Sun,  which  sinks 
each  day  lower  and  lower  towards  the  southern  horizon. 
About  the  22 d  of  December,  the  time  of  the  winter 
solstice,  the  Sun  reaches  its  greatest  southern  declina- 
tion, and  the  northern  hemisphere  is  tilted  from  it  at 
its  greatest  tilt.  The  Sun  rises  and  sets  farthest 
south  of  the  east  and  west  points,  and  the  shortest 
day  in  the  year  takes  place.  It  is  now  winter  in 
the  northern  hemisphere  and  summer  in  the  south- 
ern. At  the  South  Pole  it  is  mid-day  of  the  long 
six-months'  polar  day,  and  at  the  North  Pole  it  is  mid- 
night of  the  long  six-months'  polar  night.  About  the 
3  ist  of  December,  the  Earth  reaches  its  perihelion,  and 
is  then  nearest  the  Sun,  being  about  3jV  million  miles 
nearer  to  it  than  in  midsummer.  The  period  of  greatest 
cold  in  the  northern  hemisphere  does  not  occur  when 
the  days  are  shortest,  but  some  six  weeks  later,  namely 
about  the  end  of  January  or  beginning  of  February,  as 
the  Earth  continues  for  a  time  to  lose  more  heat  during 
the  night  than  is  received  during  the  day. 

After  the  winter  solstice,  the  days  gradually  increase 
in  length  and  the  Sun  rises  at  noon  each  day  higher  in 
the  heavens,  until  about  the  2ist  of  March — the  vernal 
equinox — it  is  overhead  at  the  equator,  and  day  and 
night  are  again  equal  all  over  the  Earth.  The  Sun  at 
this  time  rises  exactly  in  the  east  and  sets  exactly  in  the 
west.  It  is  now  spring  in  the  northern  hemisphere 
and  autumn  in  the  southern.  After  the  vernal  equinox, 
the  northern  hemisphere  becomes  more  and  more  tilted 


318  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

toward  the  Sun,  which  continues  its  northerly  course, 
mounting  higher  and  higher  in  the  sky,  until  it  arrives 
again  at  its  greatest  distance  north  of  the  equator  about 
the  2  ist  of  June.  The  Earth  in  the  meantime  is  re- 
ceiving more  heat  than  is  lost  by  radiation,  the  tempera- 
ture steadily  rises,  and  gay  summer  begins. 

Owing  indirectly  to  the  eccentricity  of  the  Earth's 
orbit,  the  seasons  in  the  northern  and  southern  hemi- 
spheres are  of  different  length.  The  summer  half  of 
the  year  (from  the  vernal  to  the  autumnal  equinox) 
in  the  northern  hemisphere  is  i86j  days,  and  the 
winter  half  of  the  year  (from  the  autumnal  back  to 
the  vernal  equinox)  is  179  days.  In  other  words,  the 
summer  half  of  the  year  is  J\  days  longer  than  the 
winter  half.  The  conditions  are  reversed  in  the  south- 
ern hemisphere,  the  winter  half  of  year  being  longer 
than  the  summer  half.  Furthermore,  the  winters  are 
colder,  and  the  summers  hotter,  in  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere than  they  are  in  the  northern. 

The  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  as  previously  noted, 
causes  the  axis  of  the  Earth  to  swing  slowly  round 
westward  in  space,  while  at  the  same  time,  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  other  planets  slowly  changes  the  position 
of  the  Earth's  orbit,  in  such  a  way  that  the  apsides 
(the  aphelion  and  perhelion  points)  move  round  slowly 
eastward.  By  reason  of  the  combination  of  the  pre- 
cession with  the  motion  of  the  apsides,  a  revolution  is 
produced,  which  will  in  the  course  of  time  (about  10,000 
years)  reverse  the  present  state  of  things.  The  peri- 
helion will  then  be  reached  in  June  and  the  aphelion 
in  December.  The  northern  summer  will  then  be  the 
shorter  and  the  hotter  one,  and  the  northern  winter 
the  longer  and  the  colder  one. 

In  mythology  the  Earth  was  personified  under  the 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      319 

name  of  Gaea  or  Ge.  In  Hesiod,  Gaea  (Terra)  is  the 
first  being  that  sprang  from  Chaos,  and  gave  birth 
to  Coelus,  or  Uranus,  the  first  ruler  of  the  world. 

Ere  earth  and  sea  and  covering  heaven  were  known, 
The  face  of  nature,  o'er  the  world,  was  one; 
And  men  have  call'd  it  Chaos. 

OVID  (Elton's  tr.). 

Ge  was  called  the  wife  of  Uranus,  and  the  mother  of  the 
Titans,  the  Giants,  the  Cyclops,  etc.  Uranus  hated 
these  children,  and  Ge  (Terra)  therefore  concealed 
them  in  the  bosom  of  the  Earth.  She  made  a  large 
iron  sickle,  and  gave  it  to  her  sons,  requesting  them  to 
take  vengeance  on  their  father.  Cronos  (Saturn) 
undertook  the  task  and  mutilated  Uranus.  The  drops 
of  blood  which  fell  from  him  upon  the  Earth  (Ge) 
became  the  seeds  of  the  Erinyes,  the  Gigantes,  and 
the  Melian  nymphs.  Ge  belonged  to  the  deities  of  the 
nether  world.  Her  worship  appears  to  have  been 
universal  among  the  Greeks.  Temples  and  altars 
were  dedicated  to  her  in  almost  every  Greek  city  and 
in  Rome. 

Pio  Emanuelli  of  Rome  has  recently  determined, 
from  astronomical  conditions,  that  the  Crucifixion  of 
Jesus  Christ  took  place  on  the  7th  of  April,  1885  years 
ago.  According  to  the  most  authentic  records  the 
date  of  our  Lord's  birth  was  about  4  B.C.,  and  He  only 
lived  to  be  thirty- three,  but  the  wondrous  things  He 
did  during  his  brief  stay  here  will  be  with  the  world 
through  the  ages. 

The  Tides 

The  tides  are  the  periodic  changes  in  the  level  of 
oceanic  and  other  large  bodies  of  water,  caused  mainly 


320  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

by  the  gravitational  pull  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  as  the 
Earth  rotates  upon  its  axis.  The  Moon,  being  so  much 
nearer  the  Earth  than  is  the  Sun,  exerts  the  stronger 
pull,  and  plays  the  chief  part  in  the  raising  of  the  tides, 
the  tide-raising  force1  of  the  Sun  being  only  about  five- 
elevenths  that  of  the  Moon.  The  tides  ebb  and  flow 
generally  twice  every  twenty-four  hours  and  fifty-one 
minutes,  a  time  identical  with  the  interval  between 
two  successive  passages  of  the  Moon  over  the  meridian. 
Hence  the  average  interval  between  two  successive 
high  or  low  tides  is  about  twelve  hours  and  twenty-five 
minutes,  and  the  average  retardation  from  day  to  day 
is  about  fifty  minutes.  The  time  of  high  water  occurs, 
not  at  the  exact  moment  of  the  Moon's  meridian  pass- 
age, but  a  certain  number  of  hours  and  minutes  later, 
the  length  of  the  interval  varying  with  the  place  of 
observation.  The  average  interval  between  the  time 
of  meridian  passage  of  the  Moon  and  the  time  of  high 
water  is  known  as  the  " establishment  of  the  port" 
(V etablissement  du  port).  The  establishment  for  New 
York  is  eight  hours  and  thirteen  seconds,  and,  there- 
fore, the  time  of  high  water  each  day  will  be,  on  the 
average,  eight  hours  and  thirteen  minutes  later  than  the 
time  given  in  the  almanac  for  the  passage  of  the  Moon 
across  the  meridian. 

Every  lunar  month  there  are  two  especially  great 
tides  known  as  Spring  Tides,  and  two  especially  little 
tides  known  as  Neap  Tides.  Spring  tides — the  high- 
est tides  of  the  month — occur  within  a  day  or  two  of 
the  time  the  Moon  is  either  new  or  full,  when  it  and  the 
Sun  are  both  exerting  a  pull  in  the  same  straight  line. 

1  The  tidal  force  exerted  by  any  celestial  body,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered, varies  inversely  as  the  cube — not  as  the  square — of  its  distance, 
and  directly  as  its  mass. 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      321 

Neap  tides — the  lowest  tides — take  place  when  the 
Moon  is  near  first  and  third  quarters,  at  which  time  the 
Sun  and  Moon  are  tending  to  pull  the  waters  in  dif- 
ferent directions.  The  relative  heights  of  spring  and 
neap  tides  are  about  as  eight  to  three.  When  the  Moon 
is  nearest  the  Earth,  the  tides  are  almost  twenty  per 
cent,  higher  than  when  it  is  at  its  greatest  distance.  The 
tides  are  also  higher  than  usual  about  the  vernal  and 
autumnal  equinoxes,  being  highest  near  the  autumnal 
equinox.  The  lowest  tides  occur  at  the  solstices,  the 
tides  of  the  summer  solstice  being  lower  than  those 
of  the  winter  ones.  The  age  of  the  tide  at  any 
place  refers  to  the  interval  from  the  time  of  the  new 
or  full  moon  to  the  time  of  the  next  spring  tide; 
while  the  difference  in  height  between  a  high  and 
a  low  tide,  at  any  particular  place,  is  called  a  range 
of  tide. 

The  tide  consists  of  two  parts — the  direct  tide  upon 
the  portion  of  the  globe  lying  just  under  the  body 
giving  rise  to  it,  and  the  opposite  tide  situated  on  the 
contrary  side  of  the  Earth — the  waters  on  the  near  side 
of  the  Earth  being  affected  by  the  tide-generating  forces 
more  powerfully  than  is  the  Earth,  and  the  Earth  in 
general  more  powerfully  than  are  the  waters  on  the 
far  side  of  the  earth.  As  the  Earth  rotates  on  its  axis 
the  watery  bulge,  or  protuberance,  appears  to  travel  from 
east  to  west  as  a  tidal  wave  twice  in  twenty-four  hours 
and  fifty-one, minutes,  each  wave  differing  slightly  from 
its  predecessor.  In  accordance  with  the  laws  of  wave 
motion,  the  form  of  the  wave  only — not  the  water  of 
the  ocean — travels,  while  the  speed  of  the  wave  depends 
upon  the  depth  of  the  water.  The  average  depth  of 
the  ocean  is  about  three  miles,  and  in  each  ocean  is 
produced  its  own  individual  tidal  wave.  Once  formed, 


322  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

these  waves  travel  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  meeting 
other  waves,  more  or  less  modify  the  tides. 

The  great  or  parent  tidal  wave  originates  in  the  deep 
waters  of  the  Southern  Pacific,  off  Callao  in  Peru.  It 
spreads  east  and  west  around  Cape  Horn,  and  past  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  having  during  its  broad  sweep 
combined  with  a  small  tide- wave  from  the  Indian 
Ocean.  Here  it  joins  the  tide  in  the  Atlantic  off  the 
African  coast,  and  a  small  wave  which  has  backed 
into  the  Atlantic  around  Cape  Horn.  The  resultant 
wave  sweeps  northward  up  through  the  Atlantic  with 
a  velocity  of  about  seven  hundred  miles  an  hour,  being 
forty-one  or  forty-two  hours  old  when  it  reaches  New 
York.  It  is  nearly  sixty  hours  old  when  it  reaches 
London  and  the  German  coast,  having  had  to  pass 
along  the  western  coasts  of  Ireland  and  England,  around 
the  northern  end  of  Scotland,  and  through  the  North 
Sea.  Thus  in  the  great  oceans,  there  must  be  at  least 
five  or  six  tide  crests  travelling  simultaneously,  follow- 
ing each  other  over  nearly  the  same  track. 

The  time  and  character  of  the  tides  are  affected  by 
winds,  by  the  contour  of  the  land,  and  the  depth  of  the 
sea.  In  mid-ocean  the  tides  are  only  about  two  feet 
high.  On  the  Long  Island  coast  they  are  not  over  three 
feet  in  height,  while  on  the  coast  of  Maine  their  aver- 
age height  is  from  ten  to  twelve  feet.  In  Long  Island 
Sound  the  conditions  are  such  that  the  wave  motion 
produces  a  rapid  current,  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  tide 
being  about  seven  feet.  The  greatest  tide  in  the  world 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  where  tides  of 
seventy  to  one  hundred  feet  are  said  to  be  not  un- 
common, their  average  height  being  about  sixty  feet. 
In  lakes  and  inland  seas,  the  tides  are  small  and  dif- 
ficult to  detect.  The  Mediterranean  and  Baltic  seas 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      323 

have  very  trifling  elevations,  the  tides  on  the  coast 
of  the  former  averaging  less  than  eighteen  inches,  al- 
though at  the  head  of  some  of  the  gulfs  it  reaches 
the  height  of  three  or  four  feet.  In  Lake  Michigan, 
a  tide  of  nearly  two  inches  has  been  detected,  the 
"establishment"  of  Chicago  being  about  half  an  hour. 
According  to  the  view  of  the  late  Sir  George  Darwin 
the  constant  tidal  wave  acts  as  a  brake,  and  tends  to 
slow  down  the  speed  with  which  the  Earth  rotates  on  its 
axis,  and  to  lengthen  the  day.  To-day  the  friction 
between  the  waters  and  the  Earth,  which  retards  the 
tides  and  diminishes  the  velocity  of  the  Earth's  rotation, 
is  very  small,  and  the  consequent  lengthening  of  the 
day  and  month  extremely  minute.  So  far  as  is  known, 
the  day  is  not  lengthening  by  even  so  much  as  the 
hundredth  part  of  a  second  in  a  thousand  years.  There 
are  grounds  for  assuming,  however,  that  tidal  friction 
will,  in  the  course  of  millions  of  years,  so  slow  down  the 
rotation  of  the  Earth  on  its  axis,  that  the  day  and  the 
month  will  be  equal,  the  planet  then  rotating  on  its 
axis  in  fifty-five  of  its  present  days.  When  that  time 
arrives,  the  Moon  will  remain  stationary  over  a  certain 
spot  of  the  Earth,  and  the  two  bodies,  though  still 
revolving  around  their  common  center  of  gravity,  will 
turn  the  same  face  to  each  other. 

Sidereal  and  Mean  Time 

So  accustomed  is  every  one  to  the  apparent  motion 
of  the  Sun  around  the  Earth  from  east  to  west,  that 
the  real  motion  of  the  Earth  around  its  axis  from  west 
to  east,  which  produces  the  phenomenon,  is  often  for- 
gotten. As  time  is  usually-  thought  of  as  reckoned 
westward  from  the  meridian,  while  right  ascensions 


324  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

are  reckoned  eastward  from  the  vernal  equinox — the 
intersection  in  the  sky  of  the  equator  and  the  ecliptic 
— it  may  help  to  a  clearer  understanding  of  their  rela- 
tions, if  the  real  motion  is  reverted  to. 

As  suggested  by  Herschel,  the  extended  plane  of  the 
meridian  may  be  considered  as  a  mammoth  clock-hand 
or  index-finger,  and  the  celestial  sphere  as  a  great  dial 
set  with  diamond  stars  for  "  time- marks,"  while  the 
index-plane,  revolving  uniformly  with  the  Earth  from 
west  to  east,  may  be  regarded  as  pointing  to  the 
successive  marks  on  the  heavenly  dial.  For  further 
convenience  other  time-marks  may  be  assumed,  set 
along  the  celestial  equator,  among  the  stars,  at  equal 
distances  from  each  other.  Adopting  a  starting  point 
for  these,  the  whole  circle  may  be  divided  into  360 
equal  parts  called  degrees,  or  into  twenty -four  equal 
parts  called  hours.  And  as  the  natural  time-marks 
cannot  always  be  seen,  and  not  at  all  the  artificial  ones, 
and  the  index  cannot  always  be  extended,  a  machine  has 
been  invented,  called  a  clock,  that  shows  in  effect  the  sev- 
eral equal  intervals  as  marked  out  and  indicated  by  the 
terrestrial  index,  on  the  artificial  celestial  equatorial  dial. 

The  vernal  equinox  or  first  of  Aries — the  noon-mark 
for  sidereal  time — is  such  a  starting  point.  The  interval 
between  two  successive  returns  of  the  meridian  index 
plane  thereto  is  called  a  day — a  sidereal  day — and 
each  of  its  twenty-four  equal  parts,  counted  from  o  to 
24,  a  sidereal  hour,  and  the  clock  a  sidereal  clock, 
while  the  duration  reckoned  in  these  units  is  termed 
sidereal  time.  The  position  of  the  natural  time- 
marks,  namely,  the  Sun,  Moon,  planets,  and  fixed  stars, 
relative  to  the  artificial  time-marks,  have  been  care- 
fully tabulated,  and  the  sidereal  times  they  indicate 
are  called  the  right  ascensions  of  these  bodies. 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      325 

For  other  uses  the  most  natural  time-mark,  the  Sun, 
may  be  adopted  as  a  starting  point.  Here,  however, 
it  is  quickly  found  that  no  clock  that  could  be  made 
would  "keep  step"  with  it.  In  other  words  it  would 
be  found  that  its  days  are  not  of  equal  length — that 
the  Sun  is  in  fact  a  poor  time-keeper — the  inequality 
being  due  to  the  variable  orbital  motion  of  the  Earth, 
and  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic.  For  instance,  such 
a  day  near  December  22d  is  51^  seconds  of  sidereal 
time,  longer  than  a  like  day  near  September  lyth. 
To  avoid  this  inconvenience,  a  fictitious  sun,  known 
usually  as  the  mean  sun,  has  been  adopted  as  a  starting 
point.  This  mean  sun  is  assumed  to  move  uniformly 
along  the  celestial  equator,  sometimes  ahead  and  some- 
times behind  the  real  or  true  Sun,  but  never  more  than 
about  sixteen  minutes  (16  min.  18  sec.)  from  it  in 
time,  so  that  the  interval  between  two  consecutive 
returns  of  the  meridian  index  or  noon  line  to  this 
mean  sun  shall  be  equal.  Such  days  are  called  mean 
solar  days,1  and  the  twenty -four  equal  parts  of  them, 
mean  solar  hours,  while  duration  reckoned  in  these 
units  is  called  mean  solar  time,  and  the  clock  a  mean 
solar  clock.  All  ordinary  clocks,  it  may  be  noted,  are 
set  to  follow  the  fictitious  or  mean  sun,  the  solar  day 
being  the  actual  day  in  ordinary  use.  Before  clocks 
were  perfected  the  gnomon  and  dial  were  used  to  give 
apparent  solar  time. 

The  earliest  mention  of  a  sun-dial  is  found  in  Isaiah 
xxxviii.,  8:  "  Behold  I  will  bring  again  the  shadow  of 
the  degrees,  which  is  gone  down  in  the  sun-dial  of  Ahaz, 
ten  degrees  backward."  The  largest  sun-dial  on  record 
— the  so-called  "  prince  of  dials  " — is  that  at  the  modern 

1  There  is  also  a  planetary  day,  a  lunar  day,  and  a  star  day,  which  in 
length  is  the  same  as  a  sidereal  day,  within  one-hundredth  of  a  second. 


326  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Hindu  city,  Jaipur.  It  was  built  about  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  by  the  famous  Maharaja  Siwai 
Jai  Singh  II.,  and  restored  in  1902.  Its  gnomon,  with 
stone  stairs,  is  nearly  150  feet  long  at  its  base,  and 
about  90  feet  in  height.  The  dial  is  so  arranged  that 
the  shadow  of  the  gnomon  falls  on  a  large  stone  quad- 
rant of  50  feet  radius,  across  which,  as  noted  by  Jacoby, 
it  moves  at  the  rate  of  2\  inches  a  minute. 

In  length,  twenty-four  hours  of  mean  solar  time  are 
equal  to  24  hrs.  3  min.  and  56.55  sec.  of  sidereal  time, 
and  hence  the  solar  day  is  nearly  four  minutes  longer 
than  the  sidereal  day.  About  forty-five  million  years 
ago,  the  day  was  only  sixteen  hours  long;  some  ten 
million  years  before  that  it  was  only  ten  hours;  and 
going  back  still  farther  into  the  recesses  of  unrecorded 
time,  it  was  but  one  hour. 

Whenever  the  meridian  index  in  its  revolution  with 
the  Earth  arrives  at  the  true  vernal  equinox,  it  is  then 
said  to  be  sidereal  noon  at  all  places  on  that  meridian, 
or  local  sidereal  noon  to  distinguish  it  from  Greenwich 
sidereal  noon.  And  the  right  ascension  to  which  the 
meridian  index,  continuing  its  revolution,  points  at  any 
instant,  is  called  the  sidereal  time,  or  more  definitely 
the  local  sidereal  time  at  that  instant  at  that  meridian, 
to  distinguish  it  from  the  Greenwich  sidereal  time  at 
the  same  instant.  Evidently,  if  the  meridian  index 
arrives  at  the  Sun  or  a  star  or  other  celestial  body,  the 
local  sidereal  time  of  that  event  is  just  the  right  ascen- 
sion of  that  body  or  point  without  further  computa- 
tion. The  sidereal  clock  conveniently  dispenses  with 
direct  observation  of  the  sidereal  dial. 

Similarly  when  the  meridian  index,  in  its  revolution, 
arrives  at  the  mean  sun,  that  instant  is  called  local 
mean  noon,  to  distinguish  it  from  Greenwich  mean 

J 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      327 

noon  for  which  instant  many  of  the  quantities  in  the 
Nautical  Almanac  are  tabulated.  And  the  point  on  the 
artificial  mean-time  dial,  to  which  the  mean -time  index, 
continuing  its  revolution,  points  at  any  instant,  is  called 
the  local  mean  time,  at  that  instant,  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  Greenwich  mean  time  at  the  same  instant.  The 
mean-time  clock  conveniently  dispenses  with  direct 
observation  of  the  mean -time  dial. 

These  two  time  systems  are  so  related  that  if  the 
starting  points  were  placed  together  the  two  dials  would 
coincide,  and  any  hour  mark  on  either  dial  would  exactly 
coincide  with  the  like  mark  on  the  other,  throughout 
the  whole  extent  of  both  dials.  Indeed  this  entire 
coincidence  occurs  once  a  year,  about  March  2ist, 
namejy,  at  the  instant  the  mean  sun,  the  initial  point  of 
one  dial,  is  at  the  true  vernal  equinox,  the  initial  point 
of  the  other  dial.  At  that  instant  the  two  clocks  also 
coincide.  But  only  at  that  instant,  for  the  mean  sun, 
moving  east,  uniformly  (sensibly  so)  increases  its 
distance  from  the  vernal  equinox,  that  is  its  right 
ascension.  It  is  as  if  the  mean-time  dial,  concentric 
with  the  sidereal  dial,  revolved  with  its  various  time- 
marks,  each  advancing  uniformly  in  right  ascension 
equally  with  the  mean  sun,  from  which  it  is  reckoned, 
at  the  rate  of  nearly  four  minutes  a  day.  And  this  is 
also  shown  by  the  two  clocks,  the  sidereal  clock  gain- 
ing that  much  on  the  mean-time  clock  each  day,  the 
difference  amounting  to  exactly  one  day  each  year. 

Reverting  now  to  the  relation  between  apparent  or 
sun-dial  time  and  mean  solar  time,  it  may  be  noted, 
that  the  difference  between  the  two  is  called  the  "equa- 
tion of  time."  On  four  particular  days  in  the  year, 
namely,  April  I5th,  June  I4th,  September  1st,  and  De- 
cember 24th,  no  difference  exists  between  the  clock  and 


328  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  Sun.  On  these  days  the  Sun  comes  to  the  noon- 
mark  on  the  sun-dial  precisely  at  twelve  o'clock,  and  the 
equation  is  zero.  At  four  other  dates  the  difference  is 
appreciable.  Thus,  the  Sun  is  14  min.  27  sec.  behind  the 
mean-time  clock  on  February  nth;  3  min.  49  sec.  ahead 
of  it  on  May  I4th;  6  min.  16  sec.  behind  it  on  July  i6th; 
and  1 6  min.  18  sec.  ahead  of  the  clock  on  November  2d. 

According  to  the  system  of  standard  time  introduced  in 
1885,  five  standard  times  are  in  use  in  North  America,  viz. , 
the  colonial,  the  eastern,  the  central,  the  mountain,  and 
the  Pacific.  These  correspond  severally  to  the  mean  local 
times  of  the  6oth,  75th,  QOth,  iO5th,  and  i2Oth  meridians 
west  of  Greenwich,  and  are  exactly  four,  five,  six,  seven, 
and  eight  hours  slower  than  Greenwich  time.  Chicago  is 
about  one  hundred  miles  east  of  the  QOth  meridian  west 
of  Greenwich,  which  runs  through  St.  Louis,  so  that 
standard  time  at  Chicago  is  about  eight  minutes  slow. 

The  astronomical  day  is  made  to  begin  at  mean  noon, 
the  hours  being  counted  uninterruptedly  from  o  to  24. 
The  civil  day,  on  the  other  hand,  begins  at  midnight 
and  ends  at  midnight,  mean  solar  time,  and  is  usually 
counted  in  two  series  of  twelve  hours  each,  although  in 
some  countries  it  is  reckoned  around  through  the  whole 
twenty-four  hours.  In  the  early  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament,  the  reckoning  was  from  one  setting  of  the 
sun  to  the  next,  "the  evening  and  the  morning"  mark- 
ing the  day. 

Were  a  traveller  to  start  at  any  place,  and  go  in  a 
westward  direction  around  the  Earth,  he  would  find  the 
Sun  crossing  his  meridian  later  each  day,  and  in  making 
the  complete  circuit  he  would  lose  exactly  one  day. 
On  the  other  hand  in  going  eastward  around  the  Earth 
he  would  find  the  Sun  crossing  his  meridian  earlier 
each  day,  and  in  making  a  full  circuit  he  would  gain  a 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      329 

day.  Evidently  then,  when  going  all  the  way  around 
the  earth  in  a  westward  direction,  he  must  somewhere 
set  the  date  forward  a  day,  as  from  Tuesday  to  Wednes- 
day, and  in  going  around  eastward,  he  must  drop  back 
a  day  in  his  reckoning,  as  from  Wednesday  to  Tuesday. 
A  convenient  place  to  make  the  change  of  date,  agreed 
upon  by  all  civilised  nations,  is  a  hypothetical  line 
coinciding  approximately  with  the  meridian  180°  from 
Greenwich.  This  line  is  called  the  "  international  date- 
line, "  and  passes  through  the  western  part  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  hardly  anywhere  touching  the  land.  It  is  prac- 
tically the  place  where  each  calendar  day  first  begins. 

Next  to  the  day,  the  shortest  natural  division  of 
time  is  the  month — the  period  required  by  the  Moon  to 
make  a  revolution  around  the  Earth.  The  time  it 
takes  the  Moon  to  pass  round  the  Earth  from  a  given 
star  to  the  same  star  again  is  called  the  sidereal  or  true 
month.  Its  length  is,  on  the  average,  27  days,  7  hours, 
43  minutes,  and  1 1 .55  seconds,  but  it  varies  some  three 
hours.  On  the  other  hand,  the  time  occupied  in  passing 
from  the  phase  of  new  or  full  moon  round  to  the  same 
phase  again  is  called  the  lunar  or  synodical  month. 
Its  average  length  is  29  days,  12  hours,  44  minutes, 
and  2.86  seconds,  but  it  varies  nearly  thirteen  hours. 
It  is  a  little  more  than  two  days  longer  than  the  sidereal 
month,  and  constitutes  what  is  ordinarily  understood 
as  the  month.  The  number  of  days  in  the  month  is 
tersely  given  in  the  following  well-known  jingle: 

Thirty  days  hath  September, 
April,  June,  and  November, 
All  the  rest  have  thirty-one, 
February  has  twenty-eight  alone; 
But  Leap  Year  coming  once  in  four — 
February's  days  are  one  day  more. 


330  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  period  of  time  required  by  the  Sun  to  complete  its 
apparent  circuit  of  the  heavens,  eastward  in  the  ecliptic, 
from  a  certain  place  among  the  stars  back  to  the  same 
place  again,  is  called  the  sidereal  year.  Its  length,  in 
mean  solar  time,  is  365  days,  6  hours,  9  minutes,  and  8.97 
seconds,  or  a  little  over  365  J  days.  The  time  taken  by 
the  Sun  to  pass  from  the  vernal  equinox  around  the 
ecliptic  and  back  again  to  the  vernal  equinox  is  called 
the  tropical  or  mean  solar  year.  Owing  to  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes,  the  vernal  equinox  shifts 
slowly  westward  each  year,  so  that  the  tropical  year 
is  about  twenty  minutes  shorter  than  the  sidereal  year. 
Its  actual  length,  in  mean  solar  time,  is  365  days,  5 
hours,  48  minutes,  and  45.51  seconds.  To  avoid  the 
difficulty  presented  by  the  tropical  year,  as  the  number 
of  days  it  contains  is  not  an  even  one,  the  civil  year  or 
the  calendar  year  has  been  instituted,  having  an  average 
length  almost  exactly  equal  to  that  of  the  tropical  year. 

The  early  Greeks  used  a  calendar  based  entirely  upon 
the  Moon,  Hesiod  describing  the  year  as  consisting  of 
twelve  months  of  thirty  days  each.  The  basis  of  the 
present  calendar  was  fixed  about  the  year  46  B.C.,  when 
Julius  Caesar,  with  the  aid  of  the  Alexandrian 
astronomer  Sosigenes,  established  what  is  known  as  the 
Julian  calendar.  According  to  this  calendar,  the  year 
consisted  of  exactly  365!  days.  Intent  on  getting 
rid  of  the  quarter  day,  Caesar  ordained  that  it  should 
be  omitted  from  the  reckoning  for  three  years  out  of 
every  four,  and  that  every  fourth  year  should  contain 
366  days,  the  extra  day — made  up  of  the  four  quarter 
days — being  added  at  the  end  of  February.  The  aver- 
age year  of  the  Julian  calendar  was,  however,  a  little 
too  long,  being  about  II  minutes  and  14  seconds  longer 
than  the  tropical  year.  Hence  by  the  middle  of  the 


The  Earth,  the  Tides,  and  Time      331 

sixteenth  century  the  calendar  had  become  in  error 
by  more  than  ten  days.  Pope  Gregory  XIII.,  there- 
fore, in  1582  A.D.,  under  the  advice  of  the  astronomer 
Clavius,  introduced  a  slight  change.  The  ten  accumu- 
lated days  were  dropped  outright  from  the  calendar, 
and  the  5th  of  October  was  styled  the  I5th.  To  pre- 
vent recurrence  of  the  error,  it  was  agreed  that  there- 
after those  years  whose  date  numbers  are  divisible  by 
four  without  a  remainder  are  leap  years,  unless  they 
are  century  years,  and  further  that  such  century  years 
as  are  exactly  divisible  by  four  hundred  are  also  leap 
years. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  MOON 

How  like  a  queen  comes  forth  the  lovely  moon, 
Walking  in  beauty  to  her  midnight  throne! 

CROLY. 

AFTER  the  Sun,  the  most  important  of  all  the  heavenly 
bodies  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Earth  is  that  orb  of 
reverie  and  mystery,  "which  gods  Selene  name,  and 
men,  the  Moon, "  Earth's  nearest  neighbour  in  space 
and  most  faithful  attendant.  Owing  to  the  variety  of 
its  phases  and  the  more  rapid  changes  of  its  relative 
position  in  the  sky,  it  holds  a  unique  position  in  the 
starry  heavens,  while  in  brightness  it  far  outshines  all 
the  planets  and  all  the  stars.  To  an  observer  on  one 
of  the  nearer  planets  the  Earth  and  Moon  must  look 
not  unlike  a  beautiful  double  star,  the  Earth  seeming 
far  brighter  than  Venus,  and  the  Moon  brighter  than 
Jupiter.  Furthermore,  did  lunarian  inhabitants  exist, 
the  Earth  would  appear  to  them  as  a  resplendent  globe, 
from  thirteen  to  fourteen  times  as  large  as  the  Moon 
appears  to  people  on  the  Earth. 

The  mean  or  average  distance  of  the  Moon  from  the 
Earth  is  238,840  miles.  Owing  to  the  eccentricity  of  its 
orbit  (0.05)  it  is  sometimes  252,972  miles  away,  and 
sometimes  only  221,614.  According  to  the  latest 
measurements,  the  diameter  of  the  Moon  is  2163  miles, 

332 


Paris  Observatory 

PLATE  XXIV.     The  Moon  at  Nine  Days 

(Image  inverted  as  in  astronomical  telescopes) 


The  Moon  333 

or  rather  more  than  one-quarter  that  of  the  Earth.  Its 
apparent  diameter  is  about  half  a  degree,  or  nearly  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Sun,  although  it  varies  somewhat, 
owing  to  the  influence  of  the  Earth's  atmosphere.  It 
travels  eastward  around  the  Earth  in  an  orbit  whose 
circumference  is  about  1,500,680  miles,  at  an  average 
velocity  of  2290  miles  an  hour,  and  completes  a  circuit 
in  27  days,  7  hours,  43  minutes,  and  11.15  seconds, 
which,  as  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter,  consti- 
tutes a  sidereal  month,  the  average  length  of  the 
common  or  synodical  month  being  29  days,  12  hours, 
44  minutes,  and  2.86  seconds.  Then,  too,  as  the  Moon 
moves  around  the  Earth,  it  appears  to  travel  around 
the  sky  among  the  stars,  at  the  rate  of  about  thirteen 
degrees  a  day. 

The  mean  density  of  the  Moon  is  about  three-fifths 
that  of  the  Earth,  and  its  mass  rather  less  than  one- 
eightieth,  while  the  force  of  gravity  at  its  surface  is 
about  one-sixth  that  at  the  Earth's  surface.  It  makes 
one  rotation  on  its  axis  in  the  course  of  one  revolution 
in  its  orbit,  and  in  consequence,  roughly  speaking,  it 
always  keeps  the  same  face  towards  the  Earth.  There 
is,  therefore,  one  hemisphere  of  the  lunar  surface  on 
which  in  its  entirety  no  human  eye  has  ever  gazed. 
The  collective  effect,  however,  of  the  Moon's  librations 
— the  libration  in  longitude,  the  libration  in  latitude, 
and  the  so-called  diurnal  libration — is  such  that  about 
four-sevenths  of  the  lunar  surface  can  be  seen,  while  three 
sevenths  remains  forever  concealed  from  view.  Since 
the  surfaces  of  globes  are  proportional  to  the  squares  of 
their  diameters,  and  their  volumes  proportional  to  their 
cubes,  it  follows  that  the  surface  area  of  the  Moon  is 
about  one-fourteenth,  and  the  volume  or  bulk  one- 
forty-ninth,  of  that  of  the  Earth.  The  total  surface 


334  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

of  the  Moon  is,  therefore,  about  equal  to  the  combined 
areas  of  North  and  South  America,  while  the  face 
which  it  always  keeps  toward  the  Earth  is  slightly 
greater  in  area  than  the  Russian  Empire. 

The  lunar  globe  is  found  to  be  devoid  of  any  bodies 
of  water,  and  is  without  sensible  atmosphere.  Indeed, 
it  has  not  sufficient  gravitative  power  to  permanently 
retain  an  atmosphere,  inasmuch  as  the  critical  velocity 
with  which  a  particle  would  have  to  move  in  order  to 
escape  from  the  control  of  the  Moon  is  only  one  and  a 
half  miles  a  second.  With  no  atmosphere  there  is 
nothing  to  temper  the  alternate  changes  either  from 
light  to  darkness,  or  from  heat  to  cold.  The  day  side 
of  the  Moon  is  exposed  to  the  Sun's  intense  heat  for  a 
fortnight  at  a  stretch,  the  temperature  rising  very  high, 
probably  reaching  the  boiling  point,  whilst  through  the 
long  lunar  night  of  a  fortnight,  the  surface  freezes  in 
the  icy  cold,  the  temperature  of  the  night  side  of  the 
Moon  falling  very  low,  perhaps  to  200°  or  250°  below 
zero.  It  is  evident  therefore,  as  another  has  suggested, 
that  people  not  enjoying  extremes  of  temperature 
should  shun  a  lunar  residence. 

The  amount  of  light  and  heat  received  from  the  full 
moon  is  estimated  as  not  more  than  one-six-hundred- 
thousandth  of  that  received  from  the  Sun.  Hence  it  is 
apparent  that  were  the  sky  full  of  moons,  the  light  re- 
ceived from  it  by  the  Earth  would  be  only  about  one- 
eighth  part  of  the  Sun's  light.  That  the  lunar  globe  is 
an  arid  waste,  an  effete  and  soundless  world,  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe,  and,  furthermore,  there  is  noth- 
ing to  show  that  life  in  the  form  it  exists  on  earth  ever 
had  its  being  amid  that  universal  ruin.  The  most  con- 
spicuous services  rendered  the  Earth  by  the  Moon  are 
the  giving  of  light  by  night,  and  the  raising  of  the  tides. 


Paris  Observatory 

PLATE  XXV.     The  Full  Moon 

(Image  inverted  as  in  astronomical  telescopes) 


The  Moon  335 

Then,  too,  as  indicated  in  Scripture,  an  important  func- 
tion of  this  silver  orb  of  night  is  to  regulate  the  calendar, 
and  mark  out  the  times  for  the  days  for  which  special 
ordinances  were  imposed.  In  the  words  of  that  noble 
nature-psalm  for  Whitsunday — the  iO4th  Psalm: 

He  [God]  appointed  the  moon  for  seasons. 

The  ancient  Hebrews  had  three  great  festivals,  all 
defined  as  to  the  time  of  their  celebration  by  the  natural 
months,  determined  by  actual  observation  of  the  new 
moon.  The  first  was  the  Feast  of  the  Passover,  a  spring 
feast,  which  corresponded  to  Easter  in  the  Christian 
Church ;  the  second  was  the  Feast  of  Pentecost,  that  is, 
Whitsuntide;  and  the  third  was  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles, an  autumn  festival,  which  was  held  at  the  time 
of  the  "harvest  moon."  The  only  great  festival  in 
Christian  countries  that  depends  directly  upon  the 
monthly  motion  of  the  Moon  is  the  festival  of  Easter, 
marking  the  anniversary  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ. 
This  festival  is  also  affected  by  the  apparent  yearly 
motion  of  the  Sun,  since  its  date  is  governed  by  the 
vernal  equinox.  The  dates  of  all  other  movable  feasts 
depend  on  that  of  Easter.  In  accord  with  the  decree 
of  the  Council  of  Nice,  Easter  Day  is  always  the  Sunday 
immediately  following  the  first  full  moon — the  paschal 
moon,  as  it  is  called  in  the  calendar — which  occurs  on  or 
next  after  March  2ist,  which  is  the  regular  date  of  the 
equinox.  If  the  full  moon  happens  on  Sunday,  Easter 
is  celebrated  one  week  later.  The  earliest  possible 
Easter  date  is  March  22d,  if  a  full  moon  falls  on  March 
2  ist  and  that  day  is  Saturday,  but  this  will  not  occur 
again  till  2285.  The  latest  possible  Easter  date  is 
April  25th,  if  a  full  moon  falls  on  March  2Oth,  and  the 


336  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

next  on  April  i8th  and  that  day  is  Sunday,  but  this  will 
not  occur  again  till  1943.  Easter  happened  to  fall  in 
1913,  near  the  extreme,  March  23d,  and  this  will  not 
occur  again  till  2008. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  phenomena  connected  with 
the  Moon  are  its  series  of  phases,  which  are  repeated 
once  every  29.5  days.  Being  an  opaque  body  shining 
merely  by  reflected  light,  it  can  be  seen  only  as  the  light 
of  the  Sun  illuminates  it.  In  this  connection  it  may  be 
noted  that  the  line  of  division  between  the  illuminated 
and  unillummated  portions  of  the  disk  is  called  the 
terminator.  It  is  always  a  semi-ellipse,  and  its  advance 
marks  the  progress  of  the  lunar  day.  When  the  Moon 
is  between  the  Earth  and  the  Sun,  its  dark  side  is  turned 
toward  the  Earth,  the  illuminated  side  being,  of  course, 
toward  the  Sun.  It  is  then  entirely  invisible,  and  this 
unseen  phase  is  the  real  new  moon,  as  announced  in  the 
almanac.  About  two  or  three  days  later,  a  thin  cres- 
cent of  silvery  light,  with  horns  turned  from  the  Sun, 
appears  in  the  evening  twilight,  just  after  sunset,  and 
this  crescent  is  commonly  called  the  new  moon.  Bryant 
refers  to  it  as: 

That  glimmering  curve  of  tender  rays 
Just  planted  in  the  sky. 

Gradually  the  crescent  broadens  out,  as  the  Moon 
moves  away  from  the  Sun,  until  on  or  about  the  seventh 
day — the  Moon  changing  approximately  every  seven 
and  a  half  days — it  reaches  a  position  designated  as  its 
first  quarter,  and  is  then  a  bright  semi-circle  off  in  the 
south  at  sunset.  During  the  next  few  days,  as  the  Moon 
moves  eastward,  more  and  more  of  its  illuminated  surface 
is  brought  into  view,  until  three-quarters  of  the  disk  ap- 
pears lighted  up,  and  it  is  then  said  to  be  gibbous.  On  or 


Paris  Observatory 

PLATE  XXVI.     The  Moon  at  Nineteen  Days 

(Image  inverted  as  in  astronomical  telescopes) 


The  Moon  337 

about  the  fourteenth  day,  the  Moon  is  opposite  the  Sun, 
and  the  whole  of  its  round  disk  appears  illuminated.  It 
is  then  alluded  to  as  full  moon  (Plate  XXV.),  rising 
about  sunset  and  setting  about  sunrise,  and  represents 
the  phase  of  most  brilliant  illumination.  Passing  on  in 
its  orbit,  its  phases  recur  in  reverse  order,  the  full  phase 
giving  place  to  the  gibbous,  and  this  in  turn  to  the  semi- 
circle, or  last  quarter,  which  phase  it  reaches  some- 
where about  the  twenty-first  day,  and  is  then  seen  high 
in  the  heavens  in  the  early  morning  hours.  Step  by 
step  it  draws  closer  to  the  Sun,  thinning  down  to  a 
crescent  shape  again,  with  the  horns  turned  from  that 
luminary,  until  it  is  lost  once  more  in  the  solar  glare, 
only  to  re-emerge,  on  or  about  the  twenty-eighth  day, 
as  new  moon,  and  begin  again  its  cycle  of  change. 

When  the  Moon  shows  a  very  thin  crescent,  the  dark 
portion  of  the  lunar  globe  can  be  dimly  seen  standing 
out  against  the  sky,  shining  with  a  faint,  soft  light, 
called  the  ashen  light — la  lumiere  cendree.  The  appear- 
ance is  popularly  known  as  the  "old  moon  in  the  new 
moon's  arms"  (Plate  XX VI I.),  and  is  sometimes  termed 
earth-light  or  earth-shine.  In  the  famous  old  Scotch 
ballad  of  Sir  Patrick  Spens,  allusion  is  thus  made  to  the 
phenomenon : 

I  saw  the  new  moon  late  yestere'en, 
Wi'  the  auld  moon  in  her  arms. 

It  is  simply  the  light  which  the  Earth  reflects  from  its 
surface  to  the  Moon — the  reflection  of  a  reflection — and 
by  the  weather-wise  is  looked  upon  as  a  sign  of  fair 
weather.  There  is  a  widespread  popular  belief,  handed 
down  from  remote  antiquity,  that  the  Moon's  changes 
influence  the  weather.  Unhappily  this  belief  is  not 
restricted  to  the  uneducated  classes,  but  is  more  or  less 


338  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

prevalent  among  the  intelligent  and  well-informed. 
Every  one  knows  that  when  a  line  joining  the  horns  or 
points  of  the  Moon's  crescent  lies  nearly  perpendicular 
to  the  horizon,  so  that  the  crescent  cannot  hold  water, 
the  Moon  is  popularly  called  a  wet  moon,  and  that  when 
it  is  almost  horizontal,  so  that  the  crescent  can  appar- 
ently hold  water,  the  Moon  is  termed  a  dry  moon,  and 
is  commonly  considered  a  sign  of  fair  weather.  And 
further,  that  a  three-days-old  moon  clearly  seen  denotes 
fine  weather,  while  to  see  the  Moon  in  the  daytime  fore- 
tells the  approach  of  cool  days.  Or  again,  that  when  a 
large  star  or  planet  is  seen  near  the  Moon,  or  as  sailors 
express  it,  "a  big  star  is  dogging  the  Moon,"  it  is  a 
certain  sign  of  boisterous  weather. 

In  her  account  of  the  burial  of  poor  old  Thias  Bede 
by  the  "White  Thorn,"  George  Eliot  in  A  dam  Bede, 
Chapter  XVIII.,  refers  to  one  of  the  more  common 
beliefs,  when  she  makes  old  Martin  say  to  his  son: 
"  It*  ud  ha*  been  better  luck  if  they'd  ha'  buried  him  i' 
the  forenoon  when  the  rain  was  fallin';  there's  no 
likelihoods  of  a  drop  now,  an'  the  moon  lies  like  a  boat 
there,  dost  see?  That's  a  sure  sign  o'  fair  weather; 
there's  a  many  as  is  false,  but  that's  sure."  The  cres- 
cent moon  appearing  either  supine  or  prone  has,  how- 
ever, no  more  to  do  with  weather  changes  than  has  the 
Panama  Canal  or  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  A  little  reflec- 
tion will  show  that  the  cusps  or  horns  of  the  new  moon 
must  point  from  the  Sun,  and  that  as  the  ecliptic  is 
differently  inclined  to  the  horizon  at  various  times 
of  the  year,  the  crescent  will  also  occupy  a  different 
position  with  reference  to  the  horizon.  There  is,  it 
may  be  noted,  a  real  but  ill-defined  seven-day  period  of 
the  weather  which  is  a  genuine  phenomenon  and  is 
probably  due  to  terrestrial  causes,  having  nothing 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XXVII.     Earth-Shine  on  the  Moon 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XXVIII.     The  Planet  Venus,  Showing  Crescent  Phase 


The  Moon  339 

whatever  to  do  with  the  Moon.  The  facts  as  regards 
the  Moon  and  the  weather  are  perhaps  fairly  repre- 
sented in  the  trite  jingle: 

The  Moon  and  the  weather 
May  change  together, 
But  change  of  the  Moon 
Does  not  change  the  weather; 
If  we'd  no  Moon  at  all — 
And  that  may  seem  strange — 
We  still  would  have  weather 
That's  subject  to  change. 

The  young,  innocent -looking  crescent  moon  has  on 
more  than  one  occasion  been  a  trouble  to  novelists. 
One  prominent  writer  is  credited  with  having  described 
a  star  as  shining  between  the  horns  of  the  crescent 
moon,  as  though  there  were  no  dark  body  there  to 
intercept  a  view  of  the  star,  and  even  Coleridge,  in  Part 
Third  of  his  Rime  of  the  Ancient  Mariner,  makes  the 
mariner  thus  allude  to  the  rising  moon: 

The  horned  Moon  with  one  bright  star 
Within  the  nether  tip. 

And  again,  it  is  said  that  Marryat,  sea-captain  though  he 
was,  wrote  of  a  waning  crescent  moon  seen  in  the  early 
evening;  and  Sir  H.  Rider  Haggard  in  King  Solomon's 
Mines,  Chapter  IX.,  hints  at  a  full  moon  seen  in  the 
west  soon  after  sunset,  thus:  "The  sun  sank  and  the 
world  was  wreathed  in  shadows.  But  not  for  long,  for 
see  in  the  west  there  is  a  glow,  then  come  rays  of  silver 
light,  and  at  last  the  full  and  glorious  moon  lights  up  the 
plain."  Furthermore,  Baroness  Orczy,  in  Petticoat 
Rule,  Chapter  VIII.,  pictures  "a  fair  crescent  moon, 
chaste  and  cold,"  appearing  "far  away  to  the  east, 


34°  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

beyond  the  grim  outline  of  cedar  and  poplar  trees, "  at 
eleven  o'clock  on  a  June  evening. 

In  common  with  other  celestial  objects,  the  Moon 
looks  larger  when  near  the  horizon  than  when  high  up 
in  the  sky ;  the  enlargement  is,  however,  only  apparent, 
not  real,  and  is  entirely  an  illusion.  And  again,  in  the 
later  months  of  the  year,  when  there  is  more  mist  and 
fog  than  in  summer,  it  usually  looks  red.  In  his 
Prometheus,  Lowell  thus  writes: 

And  I  looked 

And  saw  the  red  moon  through  the  heavy  mist, 
Just  setting,  and  it  seemed  as  it  were  falling, 
Or  reeling  to  its  fall,  so  dim  and  dead 
And  palsy-struck  it  looked. 

In  popular  belief  November  nth,  St.  Martin's  Day, 
marks  the  beginning  of  that  delightful  balmy  season 
known  as  Indian  Summer,  and  according  to  tradition, 
if  the  weather  is  fair  throughout  the  twenty-four  hours 
of  that  day,  the  winter  will  be  long  and  cold,  but  if  the 
day  turns  stormy,  the  months  to  follow  will  be  mild. 
Another  prevalent  belief  is  that  if  it  rains  on  July 
1 5th,  St.  Swithin's  Day,  rain  may  be  expected  for  forty 
days  thereafter.  An  equally  rational  and  oft-repeated 
prognostic  is  that  a  very  good  year  may  be  expected 
if  Christmas  comes  during  a  waxing  moon,  and  a  rather 
hard  one  if  it  comes  during  a  waning  moon. 

Owing  to  the  eastward  motion  of  the  Moon  in  its 
orbit,  a  daily  retardation  of  the  Moon's  rising  and 
setting  occurs,  the  average  value  of  which  is  fifty  and  a 
half  minutes.  The  actual  retardation,  however,  is 
extremely  variable,  depending  upon  the  latitude  of  the 
place  of  observation  and  the  position  of  the  Moon  in  its 
orbit.  Roughly  speaking,  it  varies  in  middle  latitudes 


The  Moon  341 

from  less  than  half  an  hour  to  an  hour  and  a  quarter. 
By  reason  of  this  variation  in  the  daily  retardation  of 
the  Moon's  rising,  there  occur  what  are  known  as  the 
Harvest  Moon  and  the  Hunter's  Moon.  The  Harvest 
Moon,  known  also  as  the  Shepherd's  moon,  is  the  full 
moon  which  conies  nearest  to  the  autumnal  equinox, 
September  23d,  and  its  peculiarity  is  that  it  rises  very 
nearly  at  the  same  hour  for  several  successive  nights, 
immediately  after  sunset,  and  each  night  rises  farther 
north  of  east.  The  phenomenon  is  due  to  the  small 
inclination  of  the  path  of  the  full  moon  to  the  horizon, 
at  that  time  of  the  year.  The  full  moon  next  follow- 
ing the  harvest  moon  is  the  Hunter's  Moon,  and  will 
usually  fall  in  October. 

Since  the  full  moon  is  always  opposite  the  Sun,  it 
follows  that  when  the  Sun  is  in  the  most  southern  part 
of  its  apparent  orbit  (as  in  midwinter)  the  Moon  is 
found  in  the  most  northern  part  of  its  orbit,  and  when, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  Sun  is  in  the  most  northern  part 
of  its  apparent  orbit  (as  in  midsummer),  the  Moon  is 
then  in  the  most  southern  part  of  its  orbit.  Thus  the 
full  moon  in  winter  in  the  northern  hemisphere  rides 
high  in  the  sky,  and  remains  a  long  time  above  the 
horizon,  while  in  summer  it  is  proportionately  low,  and 
remains  a  much  shorter  time  above  the  horizon.  In 
consequence,  the  Earth's  northern  hemisphere  receives 
a  maximum  amount  of  moonlight  in  winter  and  a 
minimum  amount  of  it  in  summer. 

When  the  Moon  is  full  it  presents  to  most  observers 
the  aspect  of  a  lugubrious,  masculine  face — the  "Man 
in  the  Moon,"  who,  according  to  Dante,  is  Cain — while 
others  see,  in  addition,  the  profile  of  a  beautiful  woman 
— the  "Lady  in  the  Moon."  Some  people  find  a  don- 
key, and  a  crab,  and  others  a  girl  reading;  then  again, 


342  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

others  have  seen  there  a  lion,  a  dog,  and  in  particular  a 
hare.  In  Plate  XXXI.,  reproduced  by  permission  from 
W.  H.  Pickering's  The  Moon,  are  given  sketches  of 
the  full  moon  by  various  persons  showing  what  they 
fancied  they  saw  with  their  unaided  eye :  i .  The  Face ; 
2.  The  Crab;  3.  The  Girl  Reading ;  4.  The  Donkey; 
5.  The  Lady;  6.  An  Astronomer's  Drawing.  The 
head  of  the  woman  will  usually  be  seen  on  the  extreme 
right  or  western  half  of  the  Moon,  with  the  face,  which 
is  bright,  turned  toward  the  left  or  east,  across  the 
disk,  although  at  times  it  is  in  the  lower  right-hand 
corner,  with  the  face  looking  upwards.  The  outlines 
of  the  forehead,  nose,  mouth,  and  chin  are  formed  by 
the  Sea  of  Showers,  or  Mare  Imbrium,  and  the  Sea  of 
Clouds,  or  Mare  Nubium,  and  the  figure  is  best  seen 
with  the  aid  of  an  opera-glass  of  low  power.  Perhaps 
the  most  interesting  of  all  the  faces  is  that  of  the 
"moon-maiden,"  with  long  floating  hair,  looking  out 
from  the  Heraclides  Promontory,  the  eastern  cape  of 
the  beautiful  Bay  of  Rainbows,  or  Sinus  Iridum,  across 
the  great  Sea  of  Showers.  Unfortunately,  however,  it 
can  only  be  seen  with  the  aid  of  the  telescope,  and  only 
when  the  Sun  is  shining  properly  upon  it.  Shakespeare, 
in  The  Tempest,  Act  II.,  Scene  2,  makes  reference  to  the 
Man  in  the  Moon,  when  Caliban  and  Stephano  are 
conversing  with  each  other,  thus: 

Caliban:     Hast  thou  not  dropped  from  heaven? 

Stephano:  Out  o'  the  moon,  I  do  assure  thee,  I  was  the 
man  in  the  moon,  when  time  was. 

Caliban:  I  have  seen  thee  in  her,  and  I  do  adore  thee; 
my  mistress  showed  me  thee,  and  thy  dog  and  bush. 

The  Moon  is  most  interesting  not  at  full,  but  rather 
at  about  the  time  of  the  first  quarter,  when  the  details 


The  Moon  343 

of  objects  on  the  lunar  surface  are  brought  into  clear 
relief  by  their  shadows.  In  even  a  large  opera-glass  or 
prism  binocular,  the  ill-defined  dark  markings  which  to 
the  naked  eye,  at  full  moon,  seemed  to  make  up  the 
picture  of  a  lugubrious  face  are  changed  and  show  up  as 
the  shadows  of  great  mountains.  When  viewed  with  a 
telescope  of  moderate  size,  the  lunar  globe  appears  as  a 
great,  round,  silvery  ball,  marked  here  and  there  with 
extensive  dark  areas,  and  pitted  all  over  with  crater- 
like  formations.  If  observed  at  or  near  the  full,  curious 
systems  of  bright  streaks  or  luminous  rays  radiating 
in  every  direction  from  certain  well-marked  centres  will 
be  seen,  one  of  which,  the  magnificent  system  which 
radiates  from  the  great  crater-mountain  Tycho,  near 
the  Moon's  south  pole,  is  so  conspicuous,  that  along 
with  the  dark-hued  plains  or  "seas"  it  makes  the  full 
moon  bear  some  resemblance  to  a  badly-peeled  orange. 

Speaking  roughly,  the  various  types  of  formations 
which  diversify  the  Moon  are  its  large,  low-lying, 
grey  plains,  its  walled  plains,  and  its  circular  or  ap- 
proximately circular  formations,  generally  known  as 
"craters, "  its  mountain  ranges  and  isolated  mountains, 
its  deep  narrow  clefts  and  rills,  and  its  curious  system 
of  bright  rays. 

The  great  grey  plains,  here  and  there  marked  by 
winding  ridges  and  small  crater-like  formations,  and 
commonly  known  as  maria  or  "seas,"  occupy  about 
one-third  of  the  visible  lunar  surface  and  are  found 
mainly  in  the  northern  hemisphere.  They  receive  the 
name  of  maria  because  the  earlier  selenographers  be- 
lieved they  were  really  lunar  seas,  and  though  they 
have  no  right  to  the  title,  the  designation  has  been 
retained  to  this  day.  The  one  that  appears  to  be  most 
perfectly  enclosed  is  the  Mare  Crisium  (the  Sea  of 


344  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Crises),  in  the  north-west  quadrant  of  the  Moon.  It  is 
about  360  miles  in  width  from  east  to  west  and  280 
miles  in  length,  and  has  an  area  of  nearly  70,000  square 
miles.  It  may  often  be  distinguished  without  optical 
aid,  and  is  sometimes  clearly  seen  by  daylight.  The 
other  maria,  with  the  exception  of  the  comparatively 
small  Mare  Humorum  (the  Sea  of  Humours),  are  only 
partially  bounded,  being  connected  with  each  other 
as  are  the  oceans  on  the  Earth. 

The  most  important  of  the  large  maria  is  the  vast 
Mare  Procellarum  (the  Sea  of  Storms).  It  extends 
along  the  eastern  side  of  the  disk  and  has  an  area  of 
nearly  two  million  square  miles.  In  the  north-east 
quadrant  is  the  great  greyish  Mare  Imbrium  (the  Sea 
of  Showers).  Besides  the  Mare  Crisium,  in  the  north- 
west quadrant,  toward  the  centre  of  the  lunar  disk  is 
the  Mare  Vaporum  (the  Sea  of  Vapours),  while  ad- 
joining it  are  the  Mare  Tranquillitatis  (the  Sea  of  Calm) 
and  the  Mare  Serenitatis  (the  Sea  of  Serenity),  the 
Lacus  Somnorum  (the  Lake  of  Dreams)  lying  to  the 
north  and  west  again  of  the  Mare  Serenitatis.  In 
the  south-west  quadrant  He  the  Mare  Fecunditatis  (the 
Sea  of  Fertility),  and  the  Mare  Nectaris  (the  Sea  of 
Nectar),  while  in  the  south-east  quadrant,  between  the 
Mare  Imbrium  and  the  middle  of  the  Moon,  lies  the 
Mare  Nubium  (the  Sea  of  Clouds).  Near  the  north 
pole  is  situated  the  Mare  Frigoris  (the  Sea  of  Cold), 
exceedingly  elongated  laterally.  The  larger  so-called 
gulfs  of  the  "seas"  are  the  Sinus  Roris  of  the  Mare 
Procellarum  and  the  celebrated  Sinus  Iridum  of  the 
Mare  Imbrium. 

The  most  striking  features  of  the  Moon  are  its  crater- 
like  formations  and  walled  plains,  which  have,  as  a  rule, 
been  named  after  celebrated  persons,  usually  men  of 


The  Moon  345 

science.  By  some  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  of 
volcanic  origin,  and  by  others  to  have  been  formed  by 
explosions  of  vast  accumulations  of  gas  in  the  interior 
of  the  Moon;  their  real  origin,  however,  is  unknown. 
Some  33,000  have  been  mapped,  and  according  to 
W.  H.  Pickering  the  total  number  visible  under  favour- 
able conditions  exceeds  200,000.  The  walled  plains  have 
a  diameter  of  from  45  to  150  miles,  and  are  encircled 
by  an  irregular  and  often  interrupted  boundary,  which 
in  some  cases  rises  to  the  height  of  about  12,000  feet 
above  the  enclosed  plains.  The  interior  is,  as  a  rule, 
comparatively  flat,  or  diversified  by  the  presence  of  a 
few  minute  craters  and  irregular  mountains.  Most  of 
the  walled  plains  lie  in  the  southern  hemisphere  of 
the  Moon,  where  quite  often  several  are  found  close 
together  in  a  row. 

The  lunar  craters,  so-called,  have  a  smaller  diameter 
than  the  walled  plains,  and  are  usually  made  up  of  a 
ringlike  wall,  enclosing  a  central  plain  or  "floor,"  which 
is  often  much  depressed  below  the  outside  level.  On 
the  floors  of  the  larger  craters,  numerous  pits  or  cra- 
terlets  are  found,  and  not  infrequently  central  peaks 
rise  to  the  height  of  the  crater- walls.  Like  the  walled 
plains,  the  craters  are  seen  in  greatest  numbers  in  the 
southern  hemisphere,  the  surface  in  the  region  of  the 
Moon's  pole  being  literally  riddled  with  pits  and  holes. 

The  craters  vary  greatly  in  size,  the  largest  being 
nearly  one  hundred  miles  in  diameter,  and  the  smallest 
discernible,  less  than  half  a  mile.  The  largest  known 
terrestrial  volcanic  crater,  Aso  San  in  Japan,  does  not 
exceed  seven  miles  in  diameter,  while  the  number  of 
those  on  the  Moon  which  exceed  seven  miles  can  be 
counted  by  hundreds.  One  of  the  larger  lunar  craters — 
the  great  walled-plain  Ptolemaeus — located  near  the 


346  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

centre  of  the  visible  hemisphere,  is  about  115  miles 
across,  while  in  one  of  its  peaks  it  rises  to  the  height  of 
more  than  9000  feet  above  the  enclosed  plain.  Shick- 
ard,  close  to  the  south-eastern  border,  is  about  134 
miles  in  diameter,  and  its  walls  rise  in  one  point  to  over 
10,000  feet,  while  Clavius,  near  the  southern  edge  of 
the  Moon,  measures  no  less  than  143  miles  in  its  greatest 
length,  and  has  a  depth  of  two  and  a  half  miles.  One 
of  the  peaks  upon  its  walls  rises  to  a  height  of  17,000 
feet.  Clavius  is  remarkable  for  the  number  of  small 
craters  associated  with  it,  and  is  looked  upon  by  many 
as  the  most  variedly  beautiful  and  impressive  of  all  the 
lunar  formations. 

On  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Mare  Procellarum 
is  the  dark  oval  called  Grimaldi,  one  of  the  largest 
wall-surrounded  plains  on  the  Moon.  It  extends  148 
miles  from  north  to  south,  and  129  from  east  to  west, 
and  covers  an  area  of  about  14,000  square  miles.  It  is 
the  darkest  spot  on  the  lunar  surface,  the  radiant 
Aristarchus— about  twenty-eight  miles  in  diameter- 
being  the  brightest.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
craters  is  Theophilus,  situated  on  the  southern  border 
of  the  Mare  Tranquillitatis.  It  is  a  large  ringed 
plain  about  sixty-four  miles  across,  and  from  16,000 
to  19,000  feet  deep,  and  has  an  area  of  about  3200 
square  miles.  Some  of  the  peaks  upon  its  ramparts 
rise  18,000  feet  above  the  crater  floor.  One  of  the 
cone-shaped  mountains  in  its  centre  is  6000  feet 
high,  yet  its  summit  is  some  4000  feet  lower  than 
the  level  of  the  outside  plain.  It  is  probably  the 
most  perfect  and  deepest  ring-mountain  on  the  Moon. 
When  the  Moon  is  five  to  seven  days  old  or  eighteen  to 
twenty  days  old,  the  superb  triple  group  of  walled 
plains  formed  by  Theophilus,  Cyrillus,  and  Catharina 


The  Moon  347 

may  be  clearly  distinguished  by  a  prism  binocular 
field-glass. 

Near  the  northern  edge  of  the  Moon  may  be  seen  a 
dark  oval  spot — the  great  walled  plain  Plato  (Plate 
XXX.).  It  is  a  coneless  crater,  about  sixty  miles 
across,  and  is  easily  recognised  at  full  moon.  Scattered 
about  on  its  decidedly  convex  floor,  are  some  thirty  or 
more  small  craters.  On  the  western  border  of  the  Mare 
Fecunditatis  is  Langrenus,  a  magnificent  walled  plain, 
with  walls  from  8000  to  10,000  feet  high.  It  is  about 
ninety  miles  in  diameter,  and  its  central  peak  is  over 
3000  feet  in  height.  The  crater  Gassendi,  in  the  south- 
east quadrant,  is  fifty-eight  miles  in  diameter,  and  about 
8000  feet  deep.  It  comes  into  view  about  three  or  four 
days  before  full  moon. 

The  brilliant  round  crater  Tycho,  not  far  from  the 
Moon's  south  pole,  is  almost  sixty  miles  in  diameter, 
and  its  crater  wall  rises  to  a  height  of  over  16,000  feet. 
Its  central,  cone-shaped  mountain  is  between  5000  and 
6000  feet  high.  Tycho  is  the  most  famous  of  the  crater 
mountains,  and  forms  a  brilliant  breast-pin  for  the 
"Lady  in  the  Moon."  It  is  connected  with  the  most 
remarkable  of  ray  systems,  and  has  been  called  by 
Webb  the  "metropolitan  crater  of  the  moon. "  Within 
a  few  days  of  full  moon,  the  crater  and  the  bright  rays 
constitute  the  most  striking  feature  of  the  whole  lunar 
surface,  and  can  even  be  seen  by  the  unaided  eye.  The 
rays  at  that  time  traverse  almost  one-fourth  of  the 
visible  lunar  disk,  radiating  from  the  crater,  like  spokes 
from  the  hub  of  a  wheel.  Around  its  massive  and  reg- 
ular ramparts  lie  a  large  number  of  formations,  part  of 
which  are  somewhat  irregular  structures,  and  part  walled 
plains.  Moreover,  in  its  region  may  be  seen  a  large 
number  of  crater-like  depressions  and  crater  cavities. 


348  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Perhaps,  the  grandest  of  lunar  craters  is  the  great 
ring-plain  known  as  Copernicus  (Plate  XXIX.)  It 
measures  about  sixty  miles  across  and  is  situated 
toward  the  eastern  edge  of  the  lunar  disk,  on  the  tip 
of  the  nose  of  the  ''Man  in  the  Moon,"  between  the 
Showery,  Stormy,  and  Cloudy  Seas.  Like  Plato,  it  is 
distinguished  for  its  system  of  bright  rays,  as  well  as 
for  its  massive  and  regular  ramparts,  which  are  crowned 
by  a  number  of  bright  peaks,  one  of  which  attains  the 
height  of  14,800  feet.  Inside  the  not  quite  circular 
walls,  near  the  centre  of  the  crater  floor,  are  four  or  five 
cone-shaped  mountains,  the  centre  one  of  which  is  over 
11,000  feet  high.  The  numberless  bright  streaks  sur- 
rounding Copernicus  rival  in  splendour  the  magnificent 
system  which  radiates  from  Tycho,  though  the  latter 
are  by  far  the  most  noteworthy.  During  the  last  cen- 
tury one  little  crater  known  as  Linne  (Plate  XXX.), 
seen  as  a  white  spot  in  the  Mare  Serenitatis,  has 
seemed  to  undergo  slight  changes,  and  is  even  reported 
by  some  to  have  been  invisible  for  a  time.  Whether 
the  suspected  changes  have  been  merely  illusions  due 
to  variable  illumination,  or  are  a  reality,  has  not  been 
definitely  decided. 

Although  the  majority  of  the  lunar  elevations  assume 
the  crateriform  aspect,  a  number  of  long  and  lofty 
ranges  of  mountains,  resembling  terrestrial  mountains, 
exist  on  the  Moon.  The  lunar  mountains,  it  may  be 
noted,  are  not  only  relatively  but  actually  higher  than 
those  of  the  Earth.  Mt.  Everest,  the  giant  of  the 
Himalayas,  the  loftiest  mountain  in  the  world,  is  only 
a  trifle  more  than  29,000  feet  high,  while  several  peaks 
of  the  Leibnitz  Mountains  on  the  extreme  southern 
edge  of  the  lunar  disk  are  nearly  30,000  feet,  and  one 
peak  is  even  said  to  be  36,000  feet  in  height.  There  are 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XXIX.     The  Great  Lunar  Crater  Copernicus 


The  Moon  349 

more  than  forty  lunar  mountains  that  are  higher  than 
is  Mt.  McKinley,  Alaska,  the  highest  peak  in  North 
America,  its  height  being  only  20,464  feet.  Of  the 
larger  mountain  ranges,  most  of  which  are  named  after 
terrestrial  mountains,  the  best  known  are  the  Lunar 
Apennines,  the  Lunar  Alps,  the  Lunar  Caucasus,  the 
Lunar  Carpathians,  the  Lunar  Pyrenees,  the  Leibnitz, 
and  the  Doerfel  Mountains.  They  are  best  viewed 
when  the  moon  is  in  its  first  or  last  quarter. 

The  Lunar  Apennines  (Plate  XXX.)  named  by 
Galileo  after  the  Apennines  of  Italy,  are  the  greatest 
and  most  impressive  of  the  larger  mountain  ranges. 
They  are  upwards  of  four  hundred  miles  in  length,  and 
while  many  of  the  peaks  are  from  12,000  to  20,000  feet 
high,  one  in  particular  attains  to  the  height  of  22,000 
feet.  They  run  in  a  north-west  and  south-east  direc- 
tion, along  the  border  of  the  Mare  Imbrium,  and  at 
first  quarter  form  a  magnificent  spectacle.  At  the  time 
of  full  moon,  the  Apennine  range  can  be  seen  quite 
well  with  the  unaided  eye,  and  it  makes  the  nose  of  the 
"  Man  in  the  Moon. "  The  Lunar  Caucasus — separated 
from  the  northern  end  of  the  Lunar  Apennines  by  a 
broad  path  connecting  the  Mare  Serenitatis  with  the 
Mare  Imbrium — are  a  mass  of  highlands  and  peaks, 
trending  to  the  west,  the  highest  peak  being  about 
18,300  feet  high.  The  Lunar  Alps,  on  the  north-west 
border  of  the  Mare  Imbrium,  attain  a  height  of  11,900 
feet,  and  at  their  eastern  end  rises  the  great  walled 
plain,  Plato.  They  are  notable  for  the  wonderful 
Alpine  Valley,  a  chasm  which  runs  through  the  range 
in  a  straight  line  for  upwards  of  eighty  miles.  The 
Valley  is  about  two  miles  wide  at  its  narrowest  point, 
and  about  six  at  its  widest,  and  is  an  easy  object  in  a 
two-inch  instrument.  Among  the  other  mountain 


35°  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

ranges  may  be  mentioned  the  Lunar  Carpathians, 
6400  feet  in  height,  to  the  west  of  the  Mare  Procellarum, 
and  close  to  the  great  crater  Copernicus,  the  Lunar 
Pyrenees,  1 1 ,900  feet  high,  on  the  western  edge  of  the 
Mare  Nectaris,  and  the  Altai  Mountains,  13,300  feet 
in  height  and  280  miles  in  length,  in  the  south-west 
quadrant.  At  the  southern  edge  of  the  Moon,  are  the 
Leibnitz  and  Doerfel  Mountains,  which,  so  far  as 
known,  embrace  the  loftiest  peaks  on  the  visible  lunar 
surface. 

In  addition  to  the  craters,  mountains,  and  grey 
plains,  there  are  on  the  lunar  surface  other  interesting 
features  known  as  rays  and  rills.  The  rills  are  fissures 
or  rents,  from  ten  to  three  hundred  miles  or  more  in 
length,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  depth,  and  from 
less  than  half  a  mile  to  more  than  two  miles  in  width. 
They  extend  in  approximately  straight  lines,  frequently 
traversing  walled  plains  and  craters,  without  any  appar- 
ent interruption.  Among  the  most  conspicuous  of  these 
strange  chasms  are  the  Serpentine  Valley  of  Herodotus, 
the  well-known  Ariadasus  and  Hyginus  clefts,  and  the 
deep  sharp  cleft  crossing  the  floor  of  Petavius.  They 
are  believed  to  be  simply  open  cracks  in  the  lunar 
surface,  caused  by  the  surface  splitting  as  it  cooled 
down  and  became  too  small  for  its  interior. 

The  rays  are  long  light-coloured  streaks,  which  radi- 
ate from  several  of  the  principal  craters  in  all  directions, 
and  are  not  well  seen  except  at  or  near  full  moon.  They 
extend  in  some  cases  to  a  distance  of  some  hundreds  of 
miles,  passing  across  valley  and  mountain,  and  at  full 
moon,  rendering  some  of  even  the  larger  craters,  such 
as  the  great  crater-plains  Clavius  and  Maginus,  almost 
unidentifiable.  They  appear  to  be  neither  elevated 
nor  depressed  with  reference  to  the  general  lunar  sur- 


Paris  Observatory 

PLATE  XXX.     The  Lunar  Apennines,  Alps,  and  Caucasus 

(Image  inverted  as  in  astronomical  telescopes) 


The  Moon  351 

face,  and  are  ordinarily  from  five  to  ten  miles  in  width. 
The  ray  system  connected  with  Tycho  is  by  far  the 
most  noteworthy,  although  those  in  connection  with 
Copernicus  and  Kepler  are  very  striking.  As  to  their 
origin  and  nature  little  is  known.  By  some  it  is  sup- 
posed that  they  were  originally  great  cracks  caused  by 
internal  pressure,  which  have  been  filled,  either  with 
lighter  coloured  material  forced  up  from  below,  or  with 
a  whitish  powder  emitted  by  the  craters  from  which  the 
rays  issue. 

From  earliest  times,  in  all  quarters  of  the  world,  the 
cold  chaste  Moon  has  been  an  easy  and  favourite  sub- 
ject for  myth  making.  There  have  been  seen  in  it  by 
every  age  and  race,  a  "Man  in  the  Moon,"  a  " Woman 
in  the  Moon, "  a  "Hare  in  the  Moon, "  and  so  on,  while 
various  and  innumerable  have  been  the  legends  regard- 
ing them.  According  to  Teutonic  legend  the  Man  in 
the  Moon  was  an  old  wood-cutter,  who  while  travelling 
on  Sunday  with  a  bundle  of  sticks  on  his  back  was  met 
by  a  fairy  who  stopped  him  and  remonstrated  with  him 
for  working  on  the  Sabbath.  He  laughed  and  replied, 
"Sunday  on  earth,  or  Monday  in  heaven,  it's  all  one  to 
me ! "  "  Then  carry  your  bundle  for  ever ! ' '  she  answered ; 
"and  as  you  regard  not  Sunday  on  Earth,  you  shall 
stand  for  eternity  in  the  Moon!"  Thereupon,  as  the 
fairy  vanished,  the  wood-cutter  was  caught  up  with  his 
bundle  into  the  Moon,  where  he  still  stands. 

In  Gyffyri  Church,  near  Conway  in  Wales,  there  is 
a  pictorial  representation  of  the  Sabbath-breaker,  in 
which  the  moon  is  depicted  as  a  big  round  disk  in  which 
is  the  man  with  his  bundle  of  sticks.  According  to  a 
Dutch  myth,  the  Man  in  the  Moon  was  transported 
there  for  stealing  cabbages  on  Christmas  Eve.  An 
Indian  legend  regarding  the  dark  spots  on  the  Moon  is 


352  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

told  in  Longfellow's  Song  of  Hiawatha,  Chapter  III., 
where  little  Hiawatha 

Saw  the  moon  rise  from  the  water, 
Rippling,  rounding  from  the  water, 
Saw  the  flecks  and  shadows  on  it, 
Whispered,  "What  is  that,  Nokomis?" 
And  the  good  Nokomis  answered, 
"  Once  a  warrior,  very  angry, 
Seized  his  grandmother,  and  threw  her 
Up  into  the  sky  at  midnight; 
Right  against  the  moon  he  threw  her; 
'Tis  her  body  that  you  see  there." 

In  Greek  legend  there  is  a  pretty  little  story  of 
Selene  (the  Moon),  and  Endymion,  a  beautiful  youth 
renowned  for  his  perpetual  sleep.  As  the  story  runs, 
while  the  latter  slept  on  Latmus,  a  mountain  in  Caria, 
whither  he  had  come  from  Elis,  Selene,  charmed  by  his 
surprising  beauty,  came  down  to  him  from  the  sky,  and 
kissed  him.  Shakespeare  alludes  to  this  episode,  when 
in  Act  V.,  Scene  I.,  he  makes  Portia  say: 

Peace,  ho !  the  moon  sleeps  with  Endymion, 
And  would  not  be  awaked! 

In  the  British  Museum  there  is  a  beautiful  statue  of 
a  sleeping  Endymion. 

There  is  a  Buddhist  legend,  according  to  which  the 
god  Indra,  while  walking  through  the  woods  disguised  as 
a  Brahman,  met  a  monkey,  a  fox,  and  a  hare  travelling 
together,  and  pretending  to  be  starving,  asked  them  for 
something  to  eat.  The  three  at  once  started  off  in  search 
for  food,  the  monkey  bringing  back  a  bunch  of  mangoes, 
and  the  fox  a  pot  of  milk  he  had  stolen,  the  hare  alone 
returning  from  the  quest  unsuccessful.  Not  wishing  to 


From  W.  H.  Pickering's  The  Moon 

PLATE  XXXI.     Lunar  Fancies 


The  Moon  353 

appear  lacking  in  hospitality,  the  hare  said  to  the  Brah- 
man, "If  you  are  very,  very  hungry,  light  a  fire  and 
roast  and  eat  me. "  "  All  right, ' '  sa id  the  Brahman, ' '  I  '11 
kindle  a  fire  at  the  foot  of  this  rock  and  you  jump  off 
into  it."  Immediately  the  fire  was  built,  the  hare 
leapt  in,  but  was  snatched  from  the  flames  by  the  god, 
and  in  reward  for  his  heroic  self-sacrifice  was  placed 
in  the  Moon,  where  he  may  be  seen  to  this  day. 

Among  some  Indian  tribes,  a  legend  exists  that  the 
dark  spots  on  the  Moon  represent  a  little  child  carrying 
a  basket.  The  myth  relates  that  the  child  cried  out 
in  the  night  for  water,  but  the  mother,  tired  and  sleepy, 
heeded  not  its  cry.  Whereupon,  the  Moon,  who  felt 
sorry  for  the  child,  appeared  with  a  pot  of  water  from 
heaven,  and  said,  "Here,  little  one,  is  water  to  drink." 
The  child  eagerly  drank  the  water  and  was  then  carried 
by  the  Moon  up  into  the  sky,  taking  with  her  the  little 
basket  she  held  in  her  hand.  In  Chinese  legend,  the 
Man  in  the  Moon  is  known  as  Yuelao,  and  is  supposed 
to  govern  marriages.  Such  young, men  and  maidens  as 
he  desires  to  make  husband  and  wife  are  tied  together 
with  an  invisible  silken  cord,  which  is  not  severed  until 
death.  Verily,  as  suggested  by  Harley  in  his  Moon- 
lore,  Yuelao  must  be  the  man  in  the  "honey-moon." 

One  of  the  chapels  adjoining  the  principal  building 
of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Cuzco,  Peru,  was  conse- 
crated to  the  Moon,  who  was  acknowledged  as  the 
sister-wife  of  ,the  Sun,  and  was  the  deity  held  next  in 
reverence,  as  the  mother  of  the  Incas.  Her  effigy 
was  delineated  on  a  vast  plate  of  silver,  that  nearly 
covered  one  side  of  the  apartment.  In  Babylonian 
mythology,  the  Moon  took  precedence  of  the  Sun,  and 
was  the  first  among  divinities.  In  Greece  the  Moon 
became  Selene,  and  with  the  Romans  was  identified 
23 


354  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

with  the  goddess  Diana.     Thus  Ben  Jonson  in  his 
hymn  to  Cynthia  wrote: 

Queen  and  huntress  chaste  and  fair, 
Seated  in  thy  silver  chair, 
Now  the  Sun  is  laid  to  sleep, 
State  in  wonted  manner  keep. 

One  of  the  most  common  superstitions  concerning 
the  Moon  is  the  expectation  of  good  luck  if  the  new 
moon  be  first  seen  over  the  right  shoulder.  It  is  nar- 
rated by  Aubrey  that  the  Scotchwomen  in  his  time 
made  a  curtsey  to  the  new  moon,  and  that  it  was 
customary  in  England  for  rustic  belles,  as  soon  as  they 
saw  the  first  new  moon  after  midsummer,  to  go  to  a 
gate  or  stile,  turn  their  back  to  it,  or  sit  astride,  and 
say: 

All  hail,  new  moon,  all  hail  to  thee! 
I  prithee,  good  moon,  reveal  to  me 
This  night  who  shall  my  true  love  be; 
Who  is  he,  and  what  he  wears, 
And  what  he  does  all  months  and  years. 

A  dream  is  expected  to  follow,  giving  the  information 
so  greatly  desired. 

Halliwell  mentions  a  prayer,  customary  with  some 
persons,  which  runs  as  follows: 

I  see  the  moon  and  the  moon  sees  me, 
God  bless  the  moon,  and  God  bless  me. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ECLIPSES 

Virgil,  in  his  second  Georgic,  in  his  petition  to  the  Muses,  writes: 

"Give  me  the  ways  of  wand'ring  stars  to  know, 
The  depths  of  heav'n  above,  and  earth  below, 
Teach  me  the  various  labours  of  the  Moon, 
And  whence  proceed  Eclipses  of  the  Sun." 

THE  eclipses  of  the  Sun  and  the  Moon,  otherwise 
known  as  the  solar  and  the  lunar  eclipses,  are  among 
the  most  impressive  and  magnificent  of  all  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  heavens.  They  are  produced  only  when 
the  new  moon  or  the  full  moon  is  at  or  very  near  one  of 
the  nodes — that  is  one  of  the  two  points  where  the  plane 
of  the  lunar  orbit  intersects  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  or 
of  the  Earth's  orbit.  Were  the  orbits  of  theEarth  and  the 
Moon  exactly  in  the  same  plane  or  level,  an  eclipse  would 
happen  every  time  the  Moon  was  new  or  full,  or  about 
twenty-five  times  a  year.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however, 
the  plane  of  the  Moon's  orbit  is  inclined  to  the  plane  of 
the  Earth's  orbit  at  an  angle  of  about  5°,  which  in 
popular  language  is  an  elevation  of  nearly  nine  in  a 
hundred ;  and  besides,  the  Moon's  nodes  are  not  station- 
ary, but  have  a  daily  retrograde  motion  of  3'  10.64", 
owing  to  the  attraction  of  the  Sun  on  the  Earth  and 
Moon.  The  motion  of  the  nodes  backward  or  west- 

355 


356  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

ward  on  the  ecliptic  resembles  that  of  the  equinoxes, 
only  it  is  much  more  rapid,  the  entire  circuit  of  the 
celestial  sphere  being  completed  in  a  little  less  than 
nineteen  years.  As  a  result  of  this  backward  motion 
of  the  Moon's  nodes,  the  eclipses  occur,  on  an  average, 
about  nineteen  days  earlier  every  year  than  they  did 
the  year  previous. 

The  average  time  required  by  the  Moon  to  journey 
in  its  orbit,  from  one  node  back  to  that  node  again, 
is  27  days,  5  hours,  5  minutes,  and  35.81  seconds, 
which  constitutes  what  has  been  called  the  nodical  or 
draconitic  month.  Since  242  draconitic  months  very 
nearly  equal  223  synodic  months,  being  about  eighteen 
years,  eleven  and  a  third  days,  and  both  are  nearly  equal 
to  nineteen  eclipse  years — an  eclipse  year  being  the  time 
occupied  by  the  Sun  in  passing  from  a  node  to  the  same 
node  again — it  follows  that  after  the  lapse  of  that 
interval  Sun,  Moon,  and  nodes  will  be  in  very  nearly 
the  same  relative  position  again.  If,  then,  an  eclipse 
should  occur  at  a  given  date,  a  very  similar  eclipse  will 
occur  again  at  the  end  of  eighteen  years,  eleven  days,  and 
eight  hours,  but  not  on  the  same  part  of  the  Earth's 
surface.  This  recurrence  of  solar  and  lunar  eclipses 
after  intervals  of  about  18.03  years  is  known  as  the 
Saros,  and  tradition  points  to  the  Chaldeans  as  its 
discoverers,  more  than  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago. 
The  usual  number  of  eclipses  in  this  space  of  time  is 
about  seventy-one,  of  which  twenty-nine  are  of  the 
Moon  and  forty-two  of  the  Sun.  The  greatest  possible 
number  of  eclipses  in  any  one  year  is  seven,  five  solar 
and  two  lunar,  or  four  solar  and  three  lunar,  and  the 
least  is  two,  in  which  case  both  will  be  solar.  The 
usual  number  of  eclipses,  however,  is  four,  two  of  which 
are  solar  and  two  lunar.  There  will  be  seven  eclipses 


The  Eclipses  357 

(a  somewhat  rare  occurrence)  in  1917,  four  of  which 
will  be  of  the  Sun  and  three  of  the  Moon.  In  1935,  also, 
there  will  be  seven  eclipses,  five  of  the  Sun  and  two  of 
the  Moon. 

Eclipses  of  the  Sun — that  is,  eclipses  caused  by  the 
Moon's  shadow  falling  on  the  Earth — take  place  at  the 
time  of  new  moon,  and  always  come  on  from  the  west 
or  right-hand  side,  and  pass  over  eastward;  while 
eclipses  of  the  Moon — that  is,  eclipses  caused  by  the  im- 
mersion of  the  Moon  in  the  shadow  of  the  Earth — occur 
at  the  time  of  full  moon,  and  come  on  from  the  east  and 
pass  over  westward.  The  solar  eclipse  limits,  or  the 
distances  on  each  side  of  the  node  within  which  a  solar 
eclipse  may  happen,  vary  from  I5J°  to  i8j°  in  either 
direction;  and  the  lunar  eclipse  limits,  or  the  distances 
on  each  side  of  the  node  within  which  a  lunar  eclipse 
may  occur,  vary  from  9!°  to  I2j°  in  either  direction. 
The  proportion  of  the  solar  eclipses  to  the  lunar  eclipses 
is  about  as  three  to  two.  There  are,  however,  more 
visible  eclipses  of  the  Moon  at  any  given  place  on  the 
Earth's  surface  than  of  the  Sun,  because  a  lunar  eclipse 
is  visible  over  the  whole  unillumined  hemisphere  of  the 
earth,  while  the  region  in  which  a  total  solar  eclipse  is 
visible  never  exceeds  165  miles  in  breadth,  although  for 
about  2000  miles  on  either  side  of  the  track  of  totality 
the  Sun  may  be  seen  partially  eclipsed.  Not  infre- 
quently a  lunar  eclipse  takes  place  about  fifteen  days 
before  or  after  a  solar  one. 

Lunar  eclipses  are  of  two  kinds,  total  and  partial; 
total  when  the  Moon  is  completely  immersed  in  the 
Earth's  shadow,  and  the  whole  lunar  disk  is  darkened 
(Plate  XXXII.),  and  partial  when  a  portion  of  the  lunar 
disk  remains  outside  of  the  true  shadow,  so  that  only  a 
part  of  the  disk  is  darkened.  At  the  average  distance 


358  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

of  the  Moon  from  the  Earth,  the  diameter  of  the  shadow 
is  a  little  over  5700  miles.  When  the  Moon  passes 
through  the  centre  of  the  Earth's  shadow,  the  eclipse 
may  continue  total  for  about  two  hours,  the  interval 
between  the  first  and  the  last  contact  being  about  two 
hours  additional.  On  account  of  the  refraction  of 
the  solar  rays  in  traversing  the  Earth's  atmosphere,  the 
Moon  is,  usually,  not  totally  invisible,  and  yet  in  the 
lunar  eclipse  of  1884  it  was,  for  a  time,  absolutely 
invisible  to  the  naked  eye.  Ordinarily  the  eclipsed 
Moon  shines  with  a  pale  coppery  light,  owing,  it  is 
believed,  to  the  fact  that  the  blue  and  green  rays  are 
absorbed  by  the  atmosphere.  Sometimes,  however,  the 
lunar  surface  has  a  greyish-blue  tinge,  as  in  the  phe- 
nomenon known  as  the  "black  eclipse."  There  are 
two  or  three  eclipses  of  the  Moon  every  year,  of  which 
one  at  least  is  nearly  always  total.  Every  inhabitant 
of  the  Earth,  therefore,  may  be  in  a  position  to  see,  on  an 
average,  half  of  all  the  total  lunar  eclipses  that  happen 
during  his  lifetime;  not  so,  however,  with  the  total 
solar  eclipses,  which  are  relatively  rare  phenomena. 
It  is  found  that  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  happens  at 
any  given  place  on  the  Earth's  surface  only  once  in 
about  every  three  hundred  years.  Though  by  no 
means  so  important  as  a  total  solar  eclipse,  a  total 
lunar  eclipse  is  yet  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 
beautiful  sights  in  the  sky. 

The  earliest  lunar  eclipse  of  which  there  is  any 
authentic  record  is  that  mentioned  by  Ptolemy  as 
having  been  observed  at  Babylon  on  March  19,  721 
B.C.  In  his  Life  of  Nicias,  Plutarch  relates  that  when 
the  Athenian  general,  then  in  feeble  health,  prepared 
in  413  B.C.  to  return  to  Greece,  after  an  unsuccessful 
siege  of  Syracuse  in  Sicily,  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XXXII.     Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  Feb.  8,  1906 


U.  S.  Naval  Obseivatory,  Washington 

PLATE  XXXIII.     Morehouse's  Comet,  Nov.  13,  1908 


The  Eclipses  359 

happened.  Fearing  the  malign  influence  of  the  phe- 
nomenon, Nicias  unfortunately  delayed  his  departure, 
and  lost  the  chance  of  retreat.  He  was  defeated  in  a 
decisive  battle  by  the  Syracusans,  and  both  he  and 
Demosthenes,  who  had  been  sent  with  reinforcements 
from  Athens,  were  captured  and  put  to  death.  Thus 
the  superstition  of  Nicias  cost  him  his  life,  and  led  to 
the  destruction  of  his  whole  army,  which  marked  the 
commencement  of  the  decadence  of  Athens.  On 
September  15,  in  the  year  5  B.C.,  a  total  lunar  eclipse 
took  place,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  one  recorded  by 
Josephus  as  having  occurred  a  little  before  the  death 
of  Herod.  It  is  of  more  than  ordinary  importance  as 
serving  to  determine  the  date  of  the  birth  of  Christ. 

The  total  lunar  eclipse  which  happened  soon  after 
sunset  on  March  I,  1504,  is  celebrated  as  having  most 
excellently  served  the  purposes  of  Christopher  Colum- 
bus in  the  island  of  Jamaica,  when  the  venerable 
admiral  and  his  people  were  in  absolute  distress  for 
food.  The  contumacious  natives  had  refused  to  longer 
supply  him  with  provisions,  in  the  hope  either  of 
starving  him  or  of  driving  him  from  the  island.  Being 
aware  that  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon  would  shortly 
occur,  he  announced  to  them,  on  the  day  of  the  eclipse, 
that  the  great  Deity  of  which  he  and  his  followers  were 
worshippers,  was  incensed  against  those  who  had  refused 
to  furnish  his  faithful  worshippers  with  provisions,  and 
intended  to  chastise  them  with  famine  and  pestilence. 
As  a  sign  of  the  anger  of  heaven,  and  in  testimony  of  the 
fearful  punishment  which  awaited  them,  he  told  the 
natives  they  would  that  very  night  behold  the  Moon 
change  its  colour  and  gradually  lose  its  light.  When  the 
phenomenon  took  place  as  predicted,  the  savages  were 
so  terrified  that  they  came  in  a  body  and  implored  him 


360  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

to  intercede  with  his  God  to  withhold  the  threatened 
calamities,  assuring  him  that  they  would  henceforth 
bring  him  supplies  as  much  as  he  needed.  Columbus 
shut  himself  up  in  his  cabin,  as  if  to  commune  with 
the  Deity,  and  when  the  eclipse  was  about  to  diminish, 
he  came  forth  and  informed  the  natives  that  his  God 
had  deigned  to  pardon  them,  on  condition  of  their 
fulfilling  their  promises,  and  in  token  of  which  he  would 
withdraw  the  darkness  from  the  face  of  the  Moon. 
From  that  time  forward  there  was  no  failure  in  the 
regular  supply  of  provisions  to  the  Spaniards.  The 
great  navigator  when  he  perpetrated  this  "pious  fraud" 
was  about  sixty-eight  years  of  age. 

One  of  the  best  examples  of  a  dark  eclipse  is  that 
observed  at  Stockholm  on  May  18,  1761.  According 
to  Wargentin,  the  lunar  disk  on  that  occasion  dis- 
appeared so  completely  that  it  could  not  be  discovered 
even  with  a  telescope. 

As  instancing  the  superstition  connected  with  eclipses 
still  existing  among  ignorant  peoples,  it  is  said  that 
during  the  lunar  eclipse  of  February  27,  1877,  the 
natives  of  Laos,  Indo-China,  amidst  terrific  yells,  fired 
shots  at  the  eclipsed  Moon,  in  order  to  frighten  off  the 
black  dragon  whom  they  imagined  was  devouring  it. 

Solar  eclipses  are  of  three  kinds — total,  partial,  and 
annular.  A  total  solar  eclipse  (Plate  XXIII.)  takes 
place  when  the  Moon  is  exactly  in  line  with  the  Earth 
and  Sun,  at  the  time  of  its  least  distance  from  the  Earth, 
and  its  disk  just  covers  that  of  the  Sun.  When  the 
Moon  is  at  its  greatest  distance  from  the  Earth,  as  it 
passes  centrally  over  the  Sun,  it  does  not  entirely  cover 
the  Sun,  but  leaves  an  uneclipsed  ring  or  "annulus" 
around  it,  and  thus  produces  what  is  known  as  an 
annular  or  "ring-formed"  eclipse.  A  partial  eclipse 


The  Eclipses  361 

occurs  when  the  Moon  is  not  exactly  in  line  with  the 
Earth  and  Sun,  and  only  covers  a  part  of  the  Sun's  disk. 

In  a  total  solar  eclipse,  than  which  no  phenomenon 
of  nature  is  more  impressive,  the  time  which  elapses 
from  the  moment  when  the  edge  of  the  Moon  first 
touches  the  western  edge  of  the  Sun,  until  the  eclipse 
becomes  total,  is  about  one  hour.  Under  the  most 
favourable  conditions  possible,  a  total  solar  eclipse  may 
continue  total,  at  any  given  point,  for  not  more  than 
seven  minutes  and  fifty-eight  seconds,  while  the  longest 
possible  duration  of  an  annular  eclipse,  at  any  selected 
point,  is  twelve  minutes  and  twenty-four  seconds. 
Ordinarily  the  time  that  the  Moon  covers  the  whole 
face  of  the  Sun  is  from  two  to  four  minutes.  About  an 
hour  after  the  total  or  annular  phase,  the  Moon's  disk, 
which  has  been  making  its  way  steadily  across  the  face 
of  the  Sun,  finally  leaves  the  solar  disk,  and  the  eclipse 
of  the  great  luminary  is  over. 

Just  before  the  eclipse  becomes  total,  it  may  be 
noticed  that,  when  viewed  through  the  telescope,  the 
gradually  diminishing  crescent  of  Sun,  instead  of  van- 
ishing all  at  once,  seems  to  resolve  itself  into  a  series  of 
brilliant  dots  called  "Baily's  Beads, "  from  their  resem- 
blance to  a  string  of  glittering  beads.  No  sooner  are 
these  so-called  beads  formed,  however,  than  one  after 
another  they  rapidly  disappear.  They  are  supposed 
to  be  bits  of  ,sunlight  shooting  up  between  such  of  the 
lunar  mountain  peaks,  as  happen  at  the  time  to  line  the 
advancing  edge  of  the  Moon,  and  were  first  systemati- 
cally described  by  the  English  astronomer  Francis 
Baily  in  1836.  About  five  minutes  before  totality, 
strange,  ill-defined,  wavy  streaks  of  light,  called 
"  shadow  bands, "  may  be  seen  chasing  each  other  across 
the  landscape.  With  the  disappearance  of  the  solar 


362  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

globe  there  suddenly  spring  into  view,  skirting  the  black 
rim  of  the  Moon,  those  important  accompaniments  of 
the  Sun,  known  as  the  Solar  Corona,  the  Chromosphere, 
and  the  Solar  Prominences,  which  have  been  treated 
of  at  length  in  Chapter  III.  During  the  total  obscura- 
tion of  the  Sun,  the  sky  puts  on  a  dark,  lurid  appearance, 
and  a  few  of  the  brighter  stars  and  planets  may  be  seen. 
As  at  nightfall,  birds  often  cease  their  songs  and  fly 
anxiously  to  their  nests,  chickens  go  to  roost,  flowers 
close  up,  the  temperature  declines,  and  dew  frequently 
falls.  Suddenly,  the  brilliant  disk  of  the  sun  springs 
into  view  again  at  the  other  side,  and  the  landscape 
glows  with  the  returning  light,  while  the  corona  and 
prominences,  the  most  interesting  and  most  striking 
sights  of  the  eclipse,  fade  away. 

In  olden  times,  eclipses  were,  and  among  unenlight- 
ened people  still  are,  looked  upon  with  feelings  of  in- 
describable terror,  as  indications  of  the  anger  of  heaven, 
or  as  presages  of  impending  calamities.  The  eclipses 
of  the  Sun  have  been  regarded  with  more  superstitious 
fear  and  awe  than  have  those  of  the  Moon,  while  both 
have  played  a  not  unimportant  part  in  the  world's 
history.  On  more  than  one  occasion  has  the  great 
terror  inspired  by  an  unexpected  eclipse  halted  armies 
on  their  march,  called  off  impending  battles,  and  ren- 
dered combatants  eager  to  come  to  terms  of  peace. 
Herodotus  records  that  a  total  solar  eclipse  stopped  a 
battle  in  the  war  between  the  Medes  and  Lydians,  and 
so  disturbed  the  contending  parties  that  they  retired 
each  to  their  own  country.  This  eclipse,  which  is  said 
to  have  been  predicted  by  the  Ionic  philosopher  Thales 
of  Miletus,  and  was  therefore  known  as  the  "Eclipse  of 
Thales,"  seems  to  have  occurred  on  May  28,  585  B.C. 
Xenophon  relates  in  his  Anabasis  the  tradition  that 


The  Eclipses  363 

when  the  Persian  king,  Cyrus,  besiged  the  city  of  Larissa 
(an  ancient  city  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris), 
but  could  not  capture  it,  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun  oc- 
curred (557  B.C.),  which  created  so  great  a  consterna- 
tion among  the  inhabitants  that  they  fled,  and  permitted 
the  city  to  be  taken.  In  the  year  1030,  an  eclipse,  gen- 
erally known  as  the  "Eclipse  of  Stiklestad,"  is  said  to 
have  taken  place  during  the  naval  battle  at  Stiklestad, 
near  Trondhjem,  in  which  the  gallant  Saint  Olaf ,  King 
of  Norway,  was  defeated  and  slain  by  the  Danes.  In 
his  Saga  of  King  Olaf,  Chapter  XIX,  Longfellow  has  it 
that 

there  in  the  mist  overhead 
The  Sun  hung  red 
As  a  drop  of  blood. 

There  is  an  Indian  tradition  that  a  great  war  between 
the  Mohawks  and  the  Senecas,  was  averted  by  the 
timely  interposition  of  heaven,  through  the  total 
eclipse  of  the  Sun  on  June  28,  1451.  It  is  related 
that  during  the  total  eclipse  of  July  29,  1878,  many 
of  the  Indians  at  Fort  Sill,  in  what  is  now  "the  boomer 
State"  Oklahoma,  became  greatly  frightened.  Some 
threw  themselves  upon  their  knees  and  invoked  divine 
blessing,  others  flung  themselves  prostrate  on  the  ground 
face  downwards,  while  not  a  few  cried  and  yelled  in 
frantic  excitement  and  terror.  At  last  an  old  Indian 
stepped  from  the  door  of  his  lodge,  mumbled  a  few 
unintelligible  words,  and  then  fired  a  shot  at  the  dark- 
ened Sun.  As  the  totality  ended  about  that  time,  the 
sun  once  more  peeped  forth,  greatly  to  the  relief  of 
the  terrified  Indians,  who  firmly  believed  that  the  old 
brave's  timely  shot  drove  away  the  unholy  shadow  and 
saved  the  sun  from  extinction. 


364  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Among  the  most  notable  eclipses  of  recent  years  are 
those  of  May  28,  1900,  and  of  August  30,  1905.  The 
track  of  totality  of  the  former  stretched  from  the  west- 
ern coast  of  Mexico,  across  the  southern  States,  over  the 
Atlantic,  and  then  through  Portugal  and  Spain  into 
Africa.  Its  total  phase  lasted  only  for  about  a  minute 
and  a  half.  The  track  of  the  eclipse  of  August  30,  1905, 
stretched  from  Winnipeg  across  Labrador,  and  over  the 
Atlantic,  through  Spain  and  across  north  Africa  into 
Arabia.  The  next  really  favourable  eclipse,  that  of 
August  21,  1914,  will  be  a  return,  after  one  saros,  of 
that  of  August  9,  1896.  Its  track  of  totality  will  stretch 
from  Greenland  through  Norway  and  Sweden,  and 
across  Russia.  A  total  solar  eclipse  is  predicted  for 
September  10,  1923.  It  will  be  a  repetition  of  that  of 
August  30,  1905.  The  longest  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun 
on  record  will  take  place  on  June  20,  1955.  It  will  be 
visible  in  the  island  of  Luzon,  and  will  last  nearly  eight 
minutes. 

According  to  the  Nautical  Almanac,  the  following 
eclipses  will  happen  during  the  next  three  years:  In 
the  year  1914,  there  will  be  four  eclipses,  two  of  the  Sun, 
and  two  of  the  Moon.  The  eclipse  of  February  24th 
will  be  an  annular  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  and  will  be  in- 
visible at  Washington;  that  of  March  nth  will  be  a 
partial  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  and  will  be  visible  at 
Washington  (mag.  0.916).  The  eclipse  of  August  20- 
21  will  be  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  Washington  being 
just  within  the  eclipse  limits.  The  eclipse  of  Septem- 
ber 3-4  will  be  a  partial  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  invisible 
at  Washington,  but  visible  in  western  North  America, 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  Asia,  and  Australia  (mag.  0.864). 

In  the  year  1915,  there  will  be  two  eclipses,  both  of 
the  Sun,  invisible  at  Washington.  Both  eclipses  will  be 


The  Eclipses  365 

annular,  and  will  occur,  one  on  February  I3th,  and  the 
other  on  August  loth. 

In  the  year  1916,  there  will  be  five  eclipses,  three  of 
the  Sun  and  two  of  the  Moon.  The  eclipse  of  January 
1 9th  will  be  a  partial  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  visible  in 
extreme  western  Europe,  the  north  Atlantic  Ocean, 
North  and  South  America,  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  north- 
east Asia  (mag.  0.137).  The  eclipse  of  February  3rd 
will  be  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  visible  at  Washington 
as  a  partial  eclipse.  The  eclipse  of  July  I4th  will  be  a 
partial  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  visible  in  Africa,  south- 
western Europe,  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  North  and  South 
America,  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  (mag.  0.800).  The 
eclipse  of  July  29th  will  be  an  annular  eclipse  of  the 
Sun,  invisible  at  Washington,  and  the  eclipse  of  Decem- 
ber 24th  will  be  a  partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun,  also  invisible 
at  Washington. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MARS  AND  THE   PLANETOIDS 

LIKE  Mercury  and  Venus,  the  planet  Mars  (Plate 
XXXIV.),  the  nearest  planet  to  the  Earth  on  the  farther 
side,  has  been  known  from  prehistoric  times.  During 
the  last  thirty -five  years,  however,  it  has  been  the  arena, 
so  to  speak,  of  more  speculation  and  controversy  than 
any  other  member  of  the  solar  system.  It  is  a  ruddy 
little  planet  about  4230  miles  in  diameter,  revolving 
around  the  Sun  at  an  average  distance  of  141,500,000 
miles  in  686.9  mean  solar  days,  which  constitutes  a 
Martian  year.  In  consequence  of  the  eccentricity 
of  its  orbit  (0.093),  which  is  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  planet  except  Mercury,  its  distance  from  the  Sun 
varies  as  much  as  26,000,000  miles.  At  its  nearest 
approach  to  that  luminary,  the  planet  is  128,000,000 
miles  distant  from  it,  and  154,000,000  miles  when 
farthest  away.  Its  motion  varies  in  different  portions 
of  its  orbit,  but  the  average  velocity  is  fifteen  miles 
a  second,  and  it  travels  over  about  four-tenths  of  a 
degree  in  the  heavens  in  a  day.  It  receives  on  the 
average  less  than  half  as  much  solar  light  and  heat 
as  does  the  Earth,  though  when  the  planet  is  near- 
est the  Sun,  it  receives  forty  per  cent,  more  heat  and 
light  than  when  at  its  greatest  distance  from  it. 

By  reason  of  its  proximity  to  the  Earth,  Mars  comes 

366 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE    XXXIV. 


The    Planet    Mars,    Region    of 
Syrtis  Major 
(Showing  change  due  to  rotation) 


Mars  and  the  Planetoids  367 

into  opposition  every  780  days.  This  constitutes  its 
synodic  period,  which  is  by  far  the  longest  in  the 
planetary  system.  At  the  average  opposition  the 
planet  approaches  the  Earth  to  within  48,600,000  miles. 
If  an  opposition  occurs  near  the  planet's  perihelion, 
the  distance  is  reduced  to  35,000,000  miles,  but  if 
near  aphelion,  it  is  increased  to  61,000,000  miles.  At 
the  time  of  conjunction  the  planet's  distance  from  the 
Earth  sometimes  amounts  to  as  much  as  249,000,000 
miles.  When  Mars  is  at  its  minimum  distance  from 
the  Earth,  it  is  nearer  than  any  other  object  in  the 
night-sky,  with  the  exception  of  the  Moon,  and  at 
times  Venus  and  Eros,  and  perhaps  an  occasional 
comet.  It  is  then  in  a  most  favourable  position  for 
telescopic  observation,  and  is  more  than  fifty  times  as 
bright  as  at  superior  conjunction.  At  such  times  the 
red-faced  planet  has  three  times  the  brightness  of  Sirius, 
while  when  most  remote  it  is  hardly  as  bright  as  Polaris. 
It  then  shows  in  the  telescope,  with  a  power  of  seventy- 
five,  a  disk  about  as  large  as  that  of  the  Moon  to  the 
unaided  eye.  When  in  or  near  opposition  its  form  is 
sensibly  globular,  but  in  other  portions  of  its  orbit  it 
shows  a  slight  phase,  which  is,  however,  never  more  than 
a  dull  gibbosity. 

The  most  favourable  and  brilliant  oppositions  always 
occur  late  in  August  or  in  the  early  part  of  September, 
and  are  repeated  at  alternate  intervals  of  fifteen 
and  seventeen  years.  The  least  favourable  oppositions 
happen  in  February  and  March.  The  last  brilliant 
perihelion  opposition  took  place  September  29,  1909, 
and  the  next  exceptionally  brilliant  one  will  occur 
during  the  last  week  of  August,  1924.  And  yet  at  some 
of  the  intervening  oppositions  (which  occur  nearly  two 
years  and  two  months  apart),  most  interesting  views 


368  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

of  the  planet's  surface  may  be  obtained.  The  planet 
will  be  in  opposition  in  January,  1914,  and  may  be 
seen  in  the  evening  from  then  on  until  the  following 
autumn.  Early  in  1916  it  will  rise  at  sunset  and  will 
shine  in  the  evening  throughout  the  summer  and  fall. 
The  next  two  oppositions  will  take  place  early  in  1918 
and  1920,  and  will  be  followed  by  a  splendid  one  in  the 
early  summer  of  1922. 

Mars  rotates  on  its  axis  in  24  hours,  37  minutes,  and 
22.65  seconds,  which  makes  its  day  a  trifle  longer 
than  a  terrestrial  one.  The  inclination  of  its  axis 
to  the  plane  of  its  orbit  is  about  twenty-four  de- 
grees and  fifty  minutes,  or  about  one  degree  and 
twenty-three  minutes  more  than  that  of  the  Earth's 
axis.  The  Martian  seasons,  therefore,  correspond  very 
closely  to  those  of  the  Earth,  but  owing  to  the  greater 
length  of  Mars' s  year,  they  are  almost  twice  as  long, 
summer  in  the  northern  hemisphere  lasting  381  days 
and  winter  306  days.  In  the  southern  hemisphere  the 
winter  is  longer  than  the  summer,  the  former  being 
longer  and  colder  and  the  latter  shorter  and  hotter  than 
in  the  northern  hemisphere. 

Mars,  like  the  Earth,  is  slightly  flattened  at  the  poles 
(about  ai-o)  and  bulged  at  the  equator.  Its  mass  is 
not  much  more  than  one-tenth  (0.105)  of  the  Earth's 
mass,  and  its  surface  is  a  little  over  one-fourth  (0.285) 
as  extensive  as  that  of  the  Earth.  The  mean  density 
of  the  planet  is  a  trifle  more  than  seven-tenths  (0.71) 
that  of  the  Earth,  and  its  force  of  gravity  about  four- 
tenths  (0.38). 

The  atmosphere  surrounding  and  enveloping  Mars 
is  probably  far  less  dense  than  that  of  the  Earth.  On 
theoretical  considerations  it  should  hardly  exceed  one- 
seventh  the  density  of  the  Earth's  atmosphere.  It  was 


Mars  and  the  Planetoids  369 

estimated  by  Maunder,  as  far  back  as  1882,  to  be  as 
thin  and  rarefied  as  is  the  atmosphere  on  the  tops  of  the 
highest  terrestrial  mountains.  Although  spectroscopic 
evidence  in  regard  thereto  has  been  conflicting,  the 
belief  exists  that  there  is  some  water-vapour  in  the 
Martian  atmosphere,  and  most  of  the  time  a  few  thin, 
semi-transparent  clouds.  A  Martian  spectrum  taken 
as  recently  as  1909,  by  Campbell,  from  the  summit  of 
Mount  Whitney  (14,898  ft.),  it  may  be  mentioned, 
showed  an  absence  of  water- vapour,  however,  as  it  was 
destitute  of  certain  bands  called  water- vapour  bands. 

Viewed  through  a  telescope,  the  Martian  surface 
presents  certain  light  and  dark  markings,  the  former 
appearing  as  bright  reddish-yellow  areas  and  the  latter 
as  areas  of  a  dark  greenish-grey  or  bluish-grey  shade. 
By  early  telescopic  observers  the  reddish-yellow  areas 
were  supposed  to  be  continents  and  the  darker  areas 
seas  and  oceans,  and  names  were  assigned  to  the  more 
prominent  features.  Now,  however,  it  is  believed  that 
there  are  no  large  bodies  of  water  on  Mars.  The 
reddish  areas,  which  cover  nearly  five-eighths  of  the 
planet's  surface,  are  to-day  looked  upon  as  desert  land, 
while  the  blue-green  areas,  which  cover  about  three- 
eighths  of  the  surface,  are  supposed  to  be  merely  tracts 
of  vegetation.  The  surface  of  the  planet  is  more  or 
less  irregular  and  rough,  showing  hills,  plateaus,  and 
even  mountain  ranges.  The  bright  projections  on  the 
terminator,  first  noticed  in  1890,  are  referred  by  Camp- 
bell to  snow-covered  mountains,  and  by  Lowell  to 
sunlight  striking  on  a  great  dust-cloud.  Around  the 
poles  are  plainly  to  be  seen  brilliant  rounded  spots,  the 
famous  so-called  polar  caps.  They  were  discovered  in 
1 7 19  by  the  French  astonomer  Maraldi,  and  are  believed 
to  be  composed  of  snow  and  ice.  They  vary  in  extent 
24 


370  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

with  the  Martian  seasons,  sometimes  entirely  vanishing 
at  midsummer,  reappearing  rather  suddenly  in  the 
autumn,  and  extending  down  twenty-five  to  thirty-five 
degrees  from  the  pole  during  the  winter.  As  the  polar 
caps  diminish,  narrow  dark  rims  are  seen  around  them, 
which  are  believed  to  be  the  result  of  the  melting  of  the 
polar  snows.  One  suggestion — a  not  very  plausible  one 
—for  explaining  the  polar  caps  is  that  they  may  not  be 
due  to  fallen  snow,  but  to  carbonic  acid  gas  (carbon 
dioxide)  which  is  known  to  condense  into  a  snowlike 
substance  at  a  temperature  of  — 109°  F.,  and  to  dissolve 
at  a  correspondingly  low  temperature. 

Carbon  dioxide,  like  water- vapour,  it  may  be  noted, 
has  the  property  of  strongly  absorbing  solar  light  and 
heat,  and  in  the  Earth's  atmosphere  it  is  one  of  the 
substances  which  tends  to  produce  a  high  mean  tem- 
perature. Hence  the  suggestion  has  been  made  that  a 
slight  excess  of  carbon  dioxide  in  Mars's  atmosphere 
might  so  alter  the  temperature  gradients  as  to  keep  the 
average  temperature  at  the  planet's  surface  at  a  point 
compatible  with  plant  and  animal  life  and  growth.  Of 
this,  however,  nothing  is  with  certainty  known.  All 
that  can  be  definitely  stated  in  regard  to  the  average 
temperature  at  the  surface  of  Mars  is  that  it  is  much 
lower  than  that  of  the  Earth — probably  below  the 
freezing  point  of  water — and  that  the  temperature  is 
more  subject  to  extremes  in  variation.  The  theoretical 
temperature  according  to  Stefan's  law  is  found  to  be 
thirty-three  degrees  below  zero.  And  yet,  it  is  quite 
likely  that  there  are  mitigating  circumstances,  at  pre- 
sent unknown,  that  soften  down  the  rigours  of  Mars's 
seasons,  and  make  them  milder  than  now  seems  possible. 

After  a  close  study  of  the  planet  made  during  the 
favourable  opposition  of  1877,  the  eminent  Italian 


Mars  and  the  Planetoids  371 

astronomer  Giovanni  Schiaparelli,  at  the  Milan  Ob- 
servatory, found  its  surface  crossed  and  recrossed  by 
many  narrow,  dark-greenish  streaks,  which  he  called 
canali — a  word  which  is  properly  translated  "  chan- 
nels," but  was  unfortunately  interpreted  to  mean 
canals  in  the  artificial  sense.  These  streaks,  which  were 
supposed  to  begin  and  end  in  the  dark  areas,  varied  in 
width  from  about  fifteen  to  sixty  miles,  and  in  length 
from  a  few  hundred  miles  to  one-third  the  entire 
circumference  of  the  planet.  At  the  next  opposition, 
and  again  at  the  opposition  of  1881,  the  assiduous 
Schiaparelli  reobserved  most  of  these  canali,  and  dis- 
covered many  more,  some  of  which  were  seen  double, 
a  phenomenon  called  "gemination."  For  many  years 
his  observations  were  received  with  a  considerable 
amount  of  doubt  and  hesitation,  but  in  1886,  Perrotin, 
at  Nice,  noted  a  few  of  the  larger  canali,  and  confirmed 
some  of  the  markings.  At  the  opposition  of  1892, 
Pickering  at  Arequipa  detected  many  of  the  canali  and 
observed  at  their  junctions  numerous  small  round 
dark  spots,  which  were  first  called  "lakes,"  but  are 
now  known  as  "oases." 

That  the  canali  are  actual  features  of  the  planet's 
surface — whatever  their  meaning  may  be — was  defin- 
itely established  in  1905,  from  a  photograph  of  Mars 
secured  by  Lampland  at  Lowell  Observatory.  These 
canali  are  by  far  the  most  mysterious  of  all  the  Mars 
phenomena,  and  their  appearance  is  synchronous  with 
the  gradual  disappearance  of  the  polar  snows.  They 
cannot  be  seen,  however,  except  in  large  instruments, 
and  under  perfect  atmospheric  conditions.  Moreover, 
what  are  really  seen  in  the  telescope  are  not  the  narrow 
water  channels  themselves,  which  are  too  small  to  be 
seen  at  such  a  distance,  but  the  fringe  of  plant  growth 


372  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

along  the  banks.  They  stand  out  boldly  in  Plate 
XXXV.,  a  map  of  Mars  designed  by  that  most  eminent 
observer  of  the  planet,  Percival  Lowell.  When  Schia- 
parelli  first  discovered  the  canali,  he  believed  them  to  be 
natural  waterways,  through  which  the  water  from  the 
annual  melting  of  the  polar  snow-fields  flows  toward 
the  equator,  but  in  his  later  years  he  averred  their 
artificiality.  Along  with  Lowell,Flammarion,  and  other 
zealous  observers,  he  confidently  asserted  that  these 
markings  are  the  features  of  a  vast  irrigation  system, 
that  they  are  in  reality  "canals,"  and  that  Mars  is 
inhabited  by  a  race  of  superior  beings.  Without  doing 
injustice  to  any  one,  it  may  be  safely  said  that  state- 
ments made  as  to  the  existence  of  beings  on  the  ruddy 
little  world  are  mainly  speculations.  Whether  con- 
scious, intelligent  life  flourishes  there  is  not  known,  and 
is  never  likely  to  be  known.  As  to  the  canali  themselves, 
the  belief  most  generally  held  by  astronomers  is  that 
they  are  not  true  canals,  but  are  due  to  cracks  or  clefts 
in  the  Martian  surface,  such  as  might  be  made  by  nature. 
Along  the  sides  of  the  cracks  or  clefts  are  ribbons  of 
vegetation,  nourished  by  the  water- vapour  escaping  from 
them,  and  these  are  the  dark-greenish  streaks,  "  vegetal 
canals,"  so  to  speak,  which  are  visible  in  the  telescope. 
In  addition  to  the  canali  observed  by  Schiaparelli, 
Lowell  and  his  assistants  at  the  famous  Lowell  Observa- 
tory at  Flagstaff  (6800  ft.),  Arizona,  have  found  many 
so-called  canals,  which  differ  radically  from  the  mark- 
ings observed  by  the  Italian  astronomer.  Lowell 
speaks  of  these  streaks  as  being  extremely  narrow,  and 
of  uniform  width  from  beginning  to  end,  and  as  forming 
a  complete  network  over  the  Martian  surface.  Nearly 
seven  hundred  of  the  more  noticeable  of  these  mys- 
terious linelike  markings  have  been  catalogued,  about 


Lowell  Observatory 

PLATE  XXXV.     A  Map  of  the  Planet  Mars 


Mars  and  the  Planetoids  373 

sixty  of  which  are  described  as  "  doubled  canals/' 
The  duplicated  canals,  it  is  said,  appear  to  their  best 
advantage  in  the  late  Martian  summer  and  fall  of  the 
northern  hemisphere.  The  small  so-called  canals  are 
estimated  by  Lowell  to  have  an  actual  width  of  two  or 
three  miles,  and  the  larger  ones  a  width  of  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  miles.  While  many  observers  have  seen 
and  mapped  numerous  lines  and  markings,  compara- 
tively few  have  been  able  to  see  the  pencil-like  network 
of  lines  as  mapped  at  the  Lowell  Observatory.  The 
elegant  drawings  of  Keeler  and  Barnard  made  at  the 
Lick  on  Mount  Hamilton  show  soft,  irregular  shadings 
and  hazy,  ill-defined  streaks,  quite  unlike  the  sharply 
defined  and  geometrically  arranged  lines  seen  in  Lowell's 
sketches. 

After  the  polar  caps,  the  most  conspicuous  object 
on  the  Martian  surface  is  the  Syrtis  Major  or  Hour- 
glass Sea,  which  is  seen  fully  presented  in  Plate  XXXV. 
It  was  observed  by  the  famous  Dutch  astronomer 
Huyghens  in  1659,  and  was  the  first  marking  detected 
on  Mars.  In  shape  it  is  not  unlike  the  North  American 
continent. 

Mars  has  two  extremely  minute  satellites,  or  moons, 
revolving  around  it,  at  rather  close  quarters,  and  with 
great  rapidity.  They  were  first  seen  by  the  late  Asaph 
Hall  at  Washington  in  August,  1877,  w^n  the  great 
telescope  of  the  Naval  Observatory,  the  largest  tele- 
scope then  in  existence.  They  were  named  Deimos 
and  Phobos,  these  being  the  names  of  the  steeds  said  by 
Homer  to  have  drawn  the  chariot  of  Mars,  the  war-god 
of  Olympus.  They  are  the  tiniest  bodies  in  the  solar 
system,  with  the  exception  possibly  of  some  of  the 
fainter  planetoids.  Neither  satellite  is  visible  except 
when  the  planet  is  in  opposition  and  generally  a  tele- 


374  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

scope  of  from  twelve  to  eighteen  inches  diameter  is 
required  to  see  them.  The  diameter  of  Phobos,  the 
inner  satellite,  is  estimated  at  thirty-six  miles,  and  that 
of  Deimos  at  ten  miles.  Deimos  makes  a  complete 
circuit  around  Mars,  at  a  distance  of  12,500  miles  from 
the  surface  of  the  planet,  in  thirty  hours  and  eighteen 
minutes,  while  Phobos  completes  a  revolution  in  seven 
hours  and  thirty-nine  minutes,  at  a  distance  of  only 
3700  miles  from  the  planet's  surface.  Deimos  rises 
in  the  east  and  takes  five  hours  and  forty-one  minutes 
more  time  to  revolve  around  Mars  than  the  latter 
takes  to  rotate  on  its  axis.  Its  mean  period  from  meri- 
dian around  to  meridian  again  is  131  hours  and  15 
minutes,  during  which  it  goes  through  its  phases  four 
times. 

The  period  or  month  of  Phobos,  the  brighter  and  the 
nearer  satellite  to  the  planet,  is  the  shortest  known,  and 
is  less  than  one-half  the  length  of  a  Martian  day.  The 
swift  revolution  of  the  satellite,  combined  with  the 
motion  of  Mars  on  its  axis,  would  make  it  appear  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  planet,  if  there  are  any,  to  rise  in 
the  west  and  set  in  the  east.  It  crosses  the  heavens 
in  eleven  hours  and  seven  minutes,  and  during  that 
time  goes  through  all  its  phases,  from  new  to  full, 
one  and  a  half  times. 

In  mythology  Mars  was  one  of  the  principal  Roman 
divinities,  and  at  an  early  period  was  identified  with 
Ares,  the  Greek  god  of  war.  Next  to  Jupiter  he  enjoyed 
the  highest  honours  at  Rome,  where  he  was  worshipped 
as  the  god  of  war  and  of  carnage,  and  where  numerous 
temples  were  dedicated  to  him.  His  priests,  the  twelve 
Salii,  danced  in  full  armour,  and  the  place  dedicated 
to  gymnastic  and  warlike  exercises  was  called  after 
his  name,  Campus  Martins,  the  "Plain  of  Mars."  He 


Mars  and  the  Planetoids  375 

was  one  of  the  three  tutelary  divinities  of  Rome,  and 
is  frequently  designated  "Father  Mars."  He  was  the 
reputed  son  of  Jupiter  and  Juno  and  is  generally 
represented  on  antique  monuments  and  medals  as  a 
robust  man  armed  with  a  helmet,  pike,  and  shield. 
Sometimes,  dressed  in  a  brilliant  suit  of  armour,  he  is 
mounted  on  a  war-chariot,  which  is  guided  by  Bellona 
or  Enyo,  the  goddess  of  war,  and  drawn  by  two  steeds, 
named  Phobos  and  Deimos,  or  Alarm  and  Dread. 

THE  PLANETOIDS 

In  the  vast  space  between  the  orbits  of  Mars  and 
Jupiter  lie  a  host  of  tiny  celestial  bodies,  variously 
known  as  planetoids,  asteroids,  or  minor  planets. 
They  encircle  the  Sun  at  an  average  mean  distance  of 
about  246,000,000  miles  from  that  luminary,  and  accord- 
ing to  Bode's  Law  occupy  a  place  in  the  sky  that  should 
be  occupied  by  a  single  large  planet.  They  were  at 
one  time  supposed  to  have  been  the  result  of  a  planet- 
ary explosion,  but  the  theory  now  held  is  that  in  the 
original  nebula,  the  shapeless  fragments  of  matter 
forming  the  planetoids  were  prevented  from  condensing 
into  a  planet  by  Jupiter's  disturbing  influence. 

Bode's  Law,  so-called,  was  really  discovered  by 
Titius  of  Wittenberg,  and  is,  after  all,  merely  a  curious 
coincidence,  an  empiric  formula,  and  not  a  real  law. 
It  was  published  in  1772,  and  may  be  summed  up  briefly 
thus:  Take  the  numbers  o,  3,  6,  12,  24,  and  so  on,  and 
add  to  each  of  them  4.  The  sums  thus  obtained  very 
nearly  represent  the  relative  distances  of  all  the  planets 
from  the  Sun,  except  Neptune.  At  a  distance  correspond- 
ing to  twenty-eight — the  fifth  number — there  is  no  planet, 
the  planetoids,  it  may  be  noted,  occupying  its  place. 


376  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

In  1800,  several  continental  astronomers  formed  an 
association  to  search  for  a  planet  where  Bode's  Law 
indicated  there  should  be  one.  Their  operations  were 
anticipated,  however,  by  the  discovery  on  January  i, 
1 80 1,  of  a  small  body — the  first  planetoid — by  the 
Sicilian  astronomer  Piazzi  at  Palermo,  while  making 
observations  for  his  well-known  catalogue  of  stars. 
The  planetoid  was  found  wandering  on  slowly  in  the 
constellation  Taurus,  at  about  the  exact  distance  neces- 
sary to  fill  the  gap  in  Bode's  series.  It  was  named  Ceres 
after  the  tutelary  goddess  of  Sicily.  In  March,  1802, 
Olbers,  of  Bremen,  discovered  a  second  planetoid 
wandering  in  the  same  regions  as  Ceres,  which  he  named 
Pallas,  and  in  1804  Harding  found  a  third  which  he 
called  Juno.  In  March,  1807,  Olbers  detected  a  fourth, 
in  the  constellation  Virgo,  which  he  named  Vesta. 
In  1845  a  fifth  planetoid  was  picked  up  by  Hencke,  a 
Prussian  amateur,  which  received  the  name  of  Astrea, 
and  in  1847  three  more  were  added  to  the  list.  To-day, 
about  eight  hundred  are  known,  and  their  real  number 
seems  to  be  legion.  New  ones  are  found  frequently 
on  the  photographic  plate. 

The  four  earlier  discovered  planetoids,  namely, 
Ceres,  Pallas,  Juno,  and  Vesta,  are  the  largest,  and  are 
the  only  ones  which  actually  show  measurable  disks. 
According  to  Barnard's  measurements  made  in  1895 
with  the  Lick  telescope,  Ceres  is  477  miles  in  diameter, 
Pallas  304  miles,  Vesta  239  miles,  and  Juno  120  miles. 
Vesta  is  the  brightest  of  the  four,  and  is  the  only 
planetoid  that  at  times  comes  within  the  limit  of  visi- 
bility. Aside  from  these,  none  of  the  planetoids  are 
larger  than  twenty-five  miles  in  diameter,  and  most  of 
them  are  much  less,  varying  it  may  be  from  fifteen  to 
ten  miles  across.  All  of  the  planetoids  travel  direct 


Mars  and  the  Planetoids  377 

like  the  planets,  but  their  orbits  are  in  many  cases 
much  more  eccentric,  and  more  inclined  to  the  ecliptic, 
than  are  any  of  the  planetary  orbits.  They  cross  and 
recross  each  other's  path  undisturbed.  Only  two  of  the 
orbits,  so  far  as  is  known,  pass  beyond  the  orbit  of 
Jupiter,  though  several  cross  the  orbit  of  Mars.  The 
nearest  planetoid  to  the  Sun  is  the  tiny  body  Eros,  which 
revolves  around  that  luminary  in  642.84  days,  or  1.76 
years,  while  the  most  distant  one  is  Hector,  with  a 
period  of  12.1  years. 

After  the  four  principal  planetoids,  the  only  one  of 
special  interest  or  importance  is  Eros.  It  was  photo- 
graphically discovered  in  August,  1898,  by  Witt  of  the 
Urania  Observatory,  Berlin,  and  is  thought  to  be  not  a 
sphere  but  a  jagged  mass.  Its  diameter  is  estimated  at 
not  more  than  twenty  miles,  and  it  is  supposed  to  com- 
plete a  rotation  on  its  axis  in  five  and  a  half  hours.  Its 
mean  distance  from  the  Sun  is  about  135,000,000  miles. 
Its  orbit  is  so  eccentric  that  at  intervals  of  about  thirty- 
seven  years  it  approaches  to  within  14,000,000  miles  of 
the  Earth,  nearer  than  any  other  celestial  body 
except  the  Moon  or  a  chance  comet.  At  such  op- 
positions it  appears  as  bright  as  a  sixth-  or  seventh- 
magnitude  star.  The  last  close  opposition  occurred 
in  1894,  and  the  next  one  will  take  place  in  1931. 

In  February  and  March,  1901,  about  three  years  after 
its  discovery,  Von  Oppolzer  found  Eros  to  be  variable, 
in  a  period  of  two  hours  and  thirty-eight  minutes.  At 
its  minimum  it  was  less  than  one-third  as  bright  as  at 
its  maximum.  Then  in  May  the  variation  vanished. 
Similar  periodic  variability,  though  less  marked,  has 
been  detected  in  Sirona,  Hertha,  Tercidina,  and  some 
other  of  the  smaller  planetoids.  No  satisfactory  theory 
has  yet  been  advanced  to  account  for  these  variations. 


378  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Eros  is  of  great  importance  in  astronomy  as  afford- 
ing, at  its  favourable  oppositions,  an  opportunity  for 
accurate  determination  of  the  solar  parallax. 

In  mythical  story,  Ceres  was  the  goddess  of  the  grow- 
ing vegetation,  and  was  supposed  to  preside  over  the 
harvests. 

Ceres  was  she  who  first  our  furrows  ploughed, 
Who  gave  sweet  fruits  and  every  good  allowed. 

POPE. 

She  was  the  daughter  of  Rhea  and  Saturn,  and  sister  of 
Jupiter.  Among  a  variety  of  other  titles  she  was  called 
the  Bona  Dea,  the  beneficent  goddess.  Angered  at  the 
carrying  off  of  her  daughter  Persephone  by  Pluto  with 
the  consent  of  Jupiter,  she  avoided  Olympus,  and  dwelt 
upon  the  earth,  and  would  not  allow  it  to  produce  any 
fruits  until  it  was  arranged  that  Persephone  should 
spend  two-thirds  of  the  year  with  her.  Her  feast,  the 
Cerealia,  was  celebrated  on  April  iQth,  honouring  the 
young  vegetation.  In  works  of  art  Ceres  is  represented 
sometimes  m  a  sitting  posture  and  sometimes  riding  in  a 
chariot  drawn  by  horses  or  dragons,  but  always  in  full 
attire.  She  wore  around  her  head  a  garland  of  corn-ears, 
or  a  simple  riband,  and  held  in  one  hand  a  lighted 
torch,  and  in  the  other  a  poppy,  which  was  sacred  to  her. 
Pallas  was  an  epithet  of  Athena  (Minerva),  the  reputed 
goddess  of  wisdom  and  scientific  warfare.  The  goddess 
was  the  daughter  of  Jupiter,  from  whose  brain  she  is 
fabled  to  have  sprung,  with  a  mighty  war-shout,  com- 
pletely armed,  and  brandishing  a  spear.  Juno,  the 
queen  of  heaven,  and  goddess  of  the  atmosphere  and 
of  marriage,  was  a  daughter  of  Rhea  and  Saturn,  and 
sister  and  wife  of  Jupiter. 


Mars  and  the  Planetoids  379 

.    .    .  Juno,  who  presides 

Supreme  o  'er  bridegrooms  and  o'er  brides. 

VIRGIL  (Conington's  tr.). 

Her  marriage  to  Jupiter,  called  the  "Sacred  Mar- 
riage," was  represented  in  many  places  where  she 
was  worshipped.  At  her  nuptials  all  the  gods 
honoured  her  with  presents.  She  was,  properly  speak- 
ing, the  only  really  married  goddess  among  the 
Olympians.  Like  Saturn,  she  was  the  guardian  of 
the  finances,  and,  under  the  name  of  Moneta,  she  had 
a  temple  on  the  Capitoline  Hill,  which  contained 
the  mint.  Vesta,  one  of  the  great  Roman  divinities, 
was  the  goddess  of  the  hearth  and  its  fire.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  Rhea  and  Saturn,  and  was  looked  upon 
as  the  giver  of  all  domestic  happiness.  She  was  the 
reputed  goddess  of  chastity,  and  was  represented  in  her 
temple,  which  stood  in  the  Forum,  by  no  statue,  but  a 
sacred  fire  was  maintained  on  her  altar,  which  was 
carefully  attended  to  by  the  Vestals,  her  virgin  priest- 
esses. The  Vestalia,  or  festival  of  Vesta,  was  one  of 
the  most  welcome  and  universally  popular  summer 
festivals  of  the  Roman  people.  The  little  Eros  was  the 
god  of  love,  the  most  handsome  and  lovely  of  the  gods. 
By  Hesiod  he  was  represented  as  one  of  the  great  cos- 
mogonic  powers,  along  with  Chaos,  Gaea,  and  Tartarus, 
but  by  later  writers  as  the  son  of  Aphrodite  (Venus), 
equivalent  to  the  Latin  god  Cupid.  He  is  generally 
represented  as  a  beautiful  child  with  golden  wings,  and 
carrying  a  bow  and  a  quiver  of  arrows.  His  chief  char- 
acteristic, aside  from  youthf ulness,  is  the  power  of  inspir- 
ing the  passion  of  love.  He  is  the  usual  companion  of 
his  mother  Aphrodite,  and  is  one  of  the  characters  in 
the  profoundly  thoughtful  myth  of  Amor  and  Psyche. 


CHAPTER  IX 

JUPITER  AND  SATURN 

OMITTING  the  group  of  planetoids,  the  fifth  planet 
in  order  from  the  Sun  is  the  pale  primrose  planet  Jupi- 
r  .ju  ter,  the  giant  planet  of  the  solar  system.  It  is  1309 
times  the  size  of  the  Earth,  and  is  larger  than  all  the 
other  planets  put  together.  Furthermore,  its  mass  is 
318  times  the  Earth's,  or  more  than  double  as  large  as 
the  combined  mass  of  all  the  other  planets.  Its  surface 
gravity  is  2.65  times  that  of  the  Earth,  and  its  average 
density  a  little  less  than  one-quarter  of  the  Earth's, 
or  only  fractionally  greater  than  that  of  water.  In 
form  it  is  an  oblate  spheroid,  the  oblateness  (A)  —  a 
result  of  the  planet's  swift  rotation  —  being  much  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  planet  except  Saturn.  Accord- 
ing to  Barnard's  measures  its  equatorial  diameter  is  some 
2&LJ9?  miles  and  its  polar  diameter  some  84,570  miles, 
a  difference  of  5620  miles.  It  travels  round  the  Sun  in 
a  period  of  n.86  terrestrial  years  (eleven  years,  ten 
months,  and  fourteen  days)  —  a  Jovian  year  —  at  a 
mean  distance  of  483  million  miles,  and  at  an  average 
speed  of  eight  and  one-tenth  miles  a  second.  Its 
orbit,  which  is  considerably  more  eccentric  than  those 
of  Venus  and  the  Earth,  is  such  that  its  distance  from 
the  Sun  varies  from  462  millon  miles  at  perihelion,  to 
504  million  miles  at  aphelion.  At  a  favourable  opposi- 

380 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  381 

tion  the  planet's  distance  from  the  Earth  is  about 
369  million  miles,  while  at  conjunction  it  is  about  596 
million  miles. 

Its  synodic  period  is  about  399  days,  or  a  little  more 
than  a  year  and  a  month.  Thus  the  last  opposition 
occurred  early  in  July,  1913,  and  the  next  will  occur 
during  the  second  week  in  August,  1914,  at  which  time 
the  planet  will  be  in  Capricornus,  and  will  be  a  brilliant 
object  in  the  summer  sky.  The  planet  will  be  in 
opposition  soon  after  the  middle  of  September  in  1915, 
near  the  last  of  October  in  1916,  and  about  the  first 
of  December  in  1917,  and  for  the  next  few  years  it 
will  be  a  winter  star.  In  1915,  it  will  be  situated  on 
the  eastern  edge  of  the  constellation  Aquarius,  in  1916 
on  the  eastern  border  of  Pisces,  and  in  1917  in  the 
constellation  Taurus.  Jupiter's  pace  eastward  through 
the  zodiac  is  slow  and  majestic,  being  at  the  rate  of 
one  sign  a  year,  or  about  two  and  a  half  degrees  a 
month.  For  about  two  months  before  and  after  each 
opposition,  the  planet  retrogrades,  the  apparently 
backward  movement — caused  by  the  Earth  passing 
it  in  eastward  motion — amounting  to  about  ten  degrees. 

Its  period  of  rotation  on  its  axis  has  been  found  to 
be  on  the  average  nine  hours  and  fifty-five  minutes. 
Some  markings,  the  equatorial,  give  a  period  of  nine 
hours  and  fifty  minutes,  while  others,  midway  between 
the  equator  and  the  poles,  give  a  period  some  five  to 
seven  minutes  longer.  As  stated  by  Stanley  Williams 
of  Brighton,  England,  no  fewer  than  nine  different 
rates  of  rotation  of  the  different  parts  have  been 
observed.  The  bright  white  spots  seem  to  rotate  more 
rapidly  than  do  the  darker  markings,  and  on  the  whole 
the  parts  move  faster  in  the  southern  than  in  the  north- 
ern hemisphere.  The  equatorial  parts,  as  a  rule,  rotate 


382  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

the  most  rapidly,  the  rate  of  rotation  being  about 
thirty  thousand  miles  an  hour. 

The  inclination  of  the  axis  of  the  planet  to  its  orbit 
is  only  three  degrees,  consequently  there  can  be  little 
variety  in  the  seasons.  As  Jupiter  is  a  little  over  five 
times  as  far  from  the  Sun  as  the  Earth  is,  it  receives 
from  that  luminary  twenty-tee  times  less  light  and  heat 
than  does  the  Earth.  According  to  the  measurements 
of  Muller  at  Potsdam  in  1893,  the  albedo  or  reflective 
power  of  the  far-away  planet,  as  a  whole,  is  seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  sunlight  which  falls  upon  it,  which 
is  practically  the  same  as  that  of  newly  fallen  snow. 

By  the  spectroscope,  Jupiter  is  shown  to  be  sur- 
rounded by  an  extremely  thick  and  dense  atmosphere, 
heavily  laden  with  vapour,  and  sometimes  estimated  as 
a  thousand  miles  in  depth.  The  interior  of  the  planet 
is  thought  to  be  so  intensely  hot  that  the  vapours  driven 
upwards  from  the  heated  mass  underneath,  are  kept 
suspended  in  the  atmosphere  in  the  form  of  dense, 
cloud  masses— the  Jovian  "  self  -raised,  not  sun-raised" — 
clouds.  That  the  planet  has  a  small  solid  nucleus  is 
quite  probable,  but  there  is  no  certainty  that  the  body 
is  so  far  cooled  as  to  have  a  solid  surface.  The  tem- 
perature of  the  whole  planet  is  doubtless  exceedingly 
high,  though  hardly  sufficient  at  the  surface  to  make  the 
globe  self-luminous.  The  great  planet  is  looked  upon 
as  a  sort  of  "semi-sun" — a  sun  which  has  just  ceased 
to  shine  by  its  own  light.  It  probably  gives  out  an 
appreciable  quantity  of  heat,  and  may  have  a  dull  red 
glow,  but  radiates  no  sensible  quantity  of  light.  In 
the  earlier  stages  of  its  existence,  when  it  shone  with 
its  own  light,  it  doubtless  presented  the  appearance, 
from  outer  space,  of  a  minute  companion  star  of  the 
sun,  the  two  forming  a  fine  double  star.  Like  the 


Lick  Observatory 

PLATE  XXXVI.     The  Planet  Jupiter,  Showing  the  Red  Spot  and 
a  Satellite 

(The  image  is  inverted  as  in  astronomical  telescopes.  The  oval  marking  on 
the  upper  left-hand  portion  of  the  disk  is  the  Red  Spot.  The  round 
black  spot  to  the  right  is  the  shadow  of  the  Satellite) 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  383 

rest  of  the  major  planets,  it  is  much  too  young  in  world 
evolution  to  admit  of  life  of  any  kind. 

When  seen  through  a  telescope,  Jupiter  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  interesting  objects  in  the  heavens 
(Plate  XXXVI.).  Its  broad,  bright  disk  is  distinctly 
oval,  and  displays  many  conspicuous  and  variable  mark- 
ings, spots,  and  belts.  While  to  the  naked  eye  its  light 
has  a  slightly  yellowish  tint,  and  is  remarkably  steady 
and  commanding,  under  telescopic  view  it  shows  a 
variety  of  beautiful  colours,  with  the  reddish  ones  most 
conspicuous.  Stretching  across  the  yellow  globe  from 
side  to  side  are  a  series  of  broad  dusky  bands  called 
belts,  alternately  light  and  dull  brown,  running  parallel 
with  the  equator.  These  belts,  which  are  belts  of  cloud, 
vary  greatly  both  in  width  and  number.  As  many  as 
twenty  or  thirty  have  been  seen  at  one  time,  but  usually 
the  number  is  much  less.  They  are  generally  from  one 
thousand  to  ten  thousand  miles  in  width,  and  are  most 
conspicuous  near  the  equator. 

Situated,  one  on  each  side  of  the  equator,  are  two 
wide  and  very  distinct  belts  called  the  "  tropical  belts. " 
They  are  commonly  of  a  reddish-brown  colour,  though, 
not  infrequently,  a  reddish-brown  belt  may  be  seen  on 
one  side  of  the  equator,  and  a  grey-blue  one  on  the 
other.  Between  the  tropical  belts  is  the  bright  equa- 
torial belt,  a  pale  yellow  or  sometimes  ruddy  belt  from 
eight  thousand  to  ten  thousand  miles  wide.  While  the 
Jovian  belts  are  not  permanent  markings,  but  change 
in  shape  and  detail  frequently,  these  three  are  a  semi- 
permanent feature,  often  remaining  unchanged  for  a 
considerable  time.  To  the  north  and  south  are  other 
narrower  belts  of  different  colours,  and  often  the  poles 
are  covered  with  hoods  of  pale  blue  or  grey.  Dusky  or 
white  spots  also  appear  upon  the  planet's  surface,  which 


384  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

may  change  in  colour,  shape,  or  brightness,  or  even  dis- 
appear altogether  for  a  time.  All  the  markings,  light  as 
well  as  dark,  lie  low  down  in  the  planet's  atmosphere, 
and,  as  viewed  from  the  earth,  there  seems  to  be  no 
great  difference  of  altitude  between  them. 

The  most  noticeable  bright  spot  is  the  famous  "  Great 
Red  Spot"  which  is  situated  just  below  the  southern 
tropical  belt  (Plate  XXXVI.),  at  about  thirty-five 
degrees  south  latitude.  It  is  one  of  the  most  puzzling 
and  interesting  features  of  the  planet.  Between  the 
years  1663  and  1708,  it  appeared  and  vanished  eight 
times.  It  became  very  conspicuous  in  July,  1878,  and 
was  then  of  a  pale  pink  colour,  which  gradually  deep- 
ened until  it  became  a  dull  brick-red.  As  recorded  by 
Pritchett  it  was  an  immense  oblong  marking,  measuring 
about  thirty  thousand  miles  from  east  to  west,  and 
seven  thousand  from  north  to  south.  Its  area  was 
greater  than  that  of  the  entire  terrestrial  globe,  and  it 
apparently  moved  independently  of  the  planet.  Six 
years  later  it  had  almost  disappeared,  but  in  1890  it 
again  became  distinctly  visible,  though  it  never  re- 
covered its  original  bright  colour.  A  curious  phe- 
nomenon was  witnessed  in  1891,  when  the  red  spot  was 
overtaken  by  a  dark  spot,  which,  instead  of  colliding 
or  going  over  or  under  it,  drifted  around  its  southern 
edge.  Since  that  time  it  has  varied  greatly  both  in 
colour  and  brightness,  but  is  still  faintly  visible,  its 
location  being  clearly  indicated  by  an  enormous  bay 
in  the  outer  border  of  the  great  southern  belt.  The 
nature  of  this  wonderful  spot  remains  as  yet  unknown. 

So  far  as  is  known,  Jupiter  is  attended  by  eight  satel- 
lites, four  large  and  four  small,  witich  are  believed  by 
ffi.  H.  Pickering  to_  bg  elliptical.'?  The  four  large  Jovian 
satellites,  which  are  almost  of  planetary  dimensions, 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  385 

were  discovered  by  Galileo,  at  Padua,  on  January  7, 
1610,  with  his  newly-invented,  but  crude,  telescope, 
and  were  named  by  him  the  "Medicean  Stars,"  in 
honour  of  his  patron  Cosmo  de  Medici.  They  are 
nearly  in  line  with  the  planet's  equator  and  are  easily 
within  the  range  of  a  good  opera-glass  or  prism  bin- 
ocular. The  other  four  have  been  found  only  within 
the  last  few  years,  and  are  so  extremely  small  and  faint 
that  they  are  visible  only  in  the  most  powerful  tele- 
scopes. It  may  here  be  noted,  that  the  real  inventor 
of  the  telescope  was  Franz  Lippershey,  a  spectacle- 
maker  at  Middleberg,  and  that  Galileo's  first  telescope, 
though  an  independent  invention,  was  suggested  by  the 
Hollander's  achievement. 

The  four  large  satellites  are  sometimes  known  by  the 
names  of  lo,  Europa,  Ganymede,  and  Callisto,  though 
they  are  more  frequently  designated,  in  the  order  of 
their  distance  from  the  planet  as  I,  II,  III,  IV.  Of  this 
quartet,  satellite  I,  with  a  diameter  of  2450  miles,  re- 
volves around  Jupiter  at  a  mean  distance  of  261,000 
miles,  in  one  day,  eighteen  hours,  and  twenty-eight 
minutes.  As  a  result  of  its  rapid  motion,  it  changes 
nightly,  from  side  to  side  of  its  primary.  Satellite  II, 
the  smallest  of  the  four,  with  a  diameter  of  2045  miles, 
revolves  in  three  days,  thirteen  hours,  and  fourteen 
minutes,  at  a  mean  distance  of  415,000  miles.  Satellite 
III,  the  largest  of  the  four,  with  a  diameter  of  3550 
miles,  makes  a  complete  revolution  in  seven  days,  three 
hours,  and  forty-two  minutes,  at  a  mean  distance  of 
664,000  miles.  Satellite  IV,  with  a  diameter  of  3345 
miles,  revolves  round  the  primary  in  sixteen  days, 
sixteen  hours,  and  thirty-two  minutes,  at  a  mean  dis- 
tance of  1,167,000  miles.  On  satellites  I,  III,  and  IV, 
equatorial  belts  and  bands  have  been  observed. 
25 


386  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

After  Galileo's  four  moons,  no  other  satellite  of 
Jupiter  was  discovered  until  1892,  when  on  September 
9th,  that  most  thorough  and  reliable  observer  Barnard, 
then  at  the  Lick  Observatory,  found  the  fifth  satellite, 
which  became  designated  by  the  numeral  V.  It  is 
one  of  the  smaller  members  of  the  Jovian  system  of 
moons,  and  is  the  nearest  satellite  to  Jupiter.  It  has 
an  estimated  diameter  of  about  one  hundred  miles, 
and  revolves  round  its  primary  in  n  hours,  57 
minutes,  and  22.6  seconds,  at  a  mean  distance  of 
112,500  miles.  It  is  notable  as  moving  faster  than  any 
other  satellite  in  the  solar  system,  its  orbital  speed, 
owing  to  the  great  attractive  power  of  the  giant  planet, 
being  sixteen  and  a  half  miles  a  second.  By  the  aid  of 
the  photographic  plate,  Perrine,  at  the  Lick,  discovered 
satellite  VI  in  December,  1904,  and  satellite  VII  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1905.  The  former,  with  an  estimated  diameter 
of  not  more  than  one  hundred  miles,  revolves  round 
Jupiter  in  about  242  days,  at  a  mean  distance  of  6,968,- 
ooo  miles,  while  the  latter,  with  an  estimated  diameter 
of  only  thirty-five  miles,  completes  a  revolution  in  about 
two  hundred  days,  at  a  mean  distance  of  6,136,000 
miles.  In  February,  1908,  satellite  VIII,  which  is  of 
the  seventeenth  magnitude,  was  discovered  by  Melotte, 
at  Greenwich,  with  the  aid  of  photography.  It  is 
supposed  to  have  about  the  same  diameter  as  satellite 
VI,  and  completes  a  revolution,  in  a  very  eccentric  orbit, 
in  a  little  more  than  two  years  and  two  months,  at  a 
mean  distance  of  about  fifteen  million  miles.  Its 
motion  seems  to  be  "retrograde" — that  is,  it  revolves 
about  its  primary  from  east  to  west,  a  direction  exactly 
opposite  to  that  of  the  other  satellites,  and  of  nearly 
all  rotating  and  revolving  bodies  throughout  the  solar 
system.  ••- 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  387 

Jupiter  is  ever  full  of  interest  and  charm  to  the  ama- 
teur, as  there  is  always  something  happening  either  on 
the  giant  world  itself  or  among  its  spry  and  fascinating 
attendants.  To  watch  the  four  larger  satellites  in  their 
occultations,  when  they  pass  behind  the  planet's  disk, 
or  in  their  eclipses  when  they  enter  the  great  cone  of 
shadow  cast  by  the  enormous  globe,  or  most  of  all  in 
their  transits  across  the  great  planet's  bright  face,  is 
a  source  of  never-ending  pleasure.  Ordinarily,  when 
a  satellite  is  in  transit,  it  will  be  followed  or  preceded, 
according  to  the  season,  by  its  shadow,  the  satellite 
being  generally  seen  projected  on  the  face  of  the  planet 
as  a  brilliant  white  spot,  and  the  shadow  as  a  tiny  round 
black  dot  (Plate  XXXVI.).  The  transit  of  a  shadow 
may  be  seen  even  with  a  two-inch  telescope,  but  for  the 
transit  of  the  satellite  itself  a  three-inch  is  required. 
Sometimes  all  four  satellites  disappear  from  view,  as 
happened  on  October  3,  1907,  when  satellites  I  (lo) 
and  III  (Ganymede)  were  eclipsed,  satellite  IV  (Callisto) 
was  occulted,  and  satellite  II  (Europa)  was  in  transit, 
and  became  invisible,  being  merged  in  the  greater 
brightness  of  the  central  portion  of  Jupiter's  disk. 
The  times  of  all  the  transits,  eclipses,  and  occultations 
are  given  in  the  Nautical  Almanac,  in  which  also  the 
relative  positions  of  the  satellites  from  night  to  night 
are  set  forth.  It  was  through  observations  of  the  trans- 
its of  Jupiter's  satellites  that  the  Danish  astronomer 
Roemer,  in  1675,  discovered  the  velocity  of  light,  which 
up  to  that  time  was  thought  to  be  instantaneous,  but 
which  is  now  known  to  be  approximately  186,400  miles 
a  second. 

Being  regarded  by  the  ancients  as  the  chief  of  the 
planets,  this  mammoth  globe  was  given  the  name  of  the 
chief  of  the  gods,  who,  among  the  mythologists,  was 


388  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Jupiter  or  Jove,  the  reputed  son  of  Saturn  and  Rhea, 
and  brother  and  husband  of  Juno.  The  god  Jupiter, 
according  to  fable,  was  born  and  reared  on  Mount  Ida 
in  Crete,  and  reigned  on  the  top  of  "many-peaked 
Olympus, "  on  the  coast  of  Thessaly.  He  was  the  chief 
of  the  gods  of  ancient  Rome,  and  was  identified  with  the 
Greek  Zeus,  the  most  prominent  and  powerful  of  all 
the  Olympian  divinities.  When  quite  young,  he  rescued 
his  father  Saturn  from  the  Titans,  and  afterwards,  with 
the  help  of  Hercules,  defeated  the  Gigantes  or  giants, 
when  they  made  war  against  heaven.  Later  he  sup- 
planted his  father  as  ruler  of  the  universe,  and  divided 
the  empire  of  the  world  with  his  brothers,  reserving  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  for  himself,  and  giving  the  empire 
of  the  sea  to  Neptune,  and  that  of  the  infernal  regions 
to  Pluto.  He  was  generally  represented  as  a  majestic 
personage  with  long,  curling  hair  and  beard,  clad  in 
flowing  drapery,  and  seated  upon  a  magnificent  throne 
of  gold  or  ivory,  with  thunderbolts  in  one  hand  ready 
to  be  hurled,  and  a  sceptre  of  cypress  in  the  other,  while 
close  beside  him  stood  an  eagle  with  expanded  wings, 
the  emblem  of  strength  and  power. 

He  whose  all-conscious  eyes  the  world  behold, 
The  eternal  Thunderer  sat,  enthroned  in  gold, 
High  heaven  the  footstool  of  his  feet  he  makes, 
And  wide  beneath  him  all  Olympus  shakes. 

HOMER  (Popfe's  tr.). 

The  worship  of  Jove  was  well-nigh  universal,  and 
surpassed  in  solemnity  that  of  all  other  deities.  Accord- 
ing to  the  belief  of  the  Romans,  he  determined  the 
course  of  all  human  affairs,  and  by  his  own  choice 
assigned  good  or  evil  to  mortals.  The  Fates  and 
Destiny  alone  dared  oppose  his  sovereign  will.  He 


Lowell  Observatory 

PLATE  XXXVII.     The  Planet  Saturn  and  Its  Rin-s 

(Showing  wisps) 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  389 

revealed  the  future  to  man  through  signs  in  the  heavens, 
and  the  flight  of  birds.  He  had  many  oracles  of  which 
the  most  renowned  were  those  of  Dodona  in  Epirus 
and  Ammon  in  the  Libyan  Desert.  A  magnificent 
temple  at  Olympia,  in  the  Peloponnesus,  was  dedicated 
to  him,  where  every  fifth  year  the  people  of  Greece 
were  wont  to  assemble  to  celebrate  games — the  Olym- 
pian Games — in  honour  of  his  great  victory  over  the 
Titans.  He  had  also  a  splendid  fane  in  the  isle  of 
^gina.  In  Homeric  poems  Jupiter  is  described  as  the 
thunderer,  the  gatherer  of  clouds,  and  the  originator 
of  all  atmospheric  changes. 

SATURN 

The  second  largest  planet  in  the  solar  system,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  most  interesting,  is  the  wonderful 
and  beautiful  ringed  world,  Saturn  (Plate  XXXVII.). 
It  is  the  sixth  planet  in  order  from  the  Sun,  and  the 
most  remote  world  known  to  the  ancients.  It  shines 
with  a  steady,  dull,  red-yellow  light,  and  to  the  un- 
aided eye  appears  about  as  bright  as  a  first-magnitude 
star.  It  is  the  most  spectacular  of  all  the  planets,  and 
is  distinguished  from  all  known  celestial  bodies  by  its 
marvellous  system  of  immense  rings,  which  has  been 
known  to  astronomers  for  a  little  over  two  and  a  half 
centuries,  and  may  be  distinctly  seen  in  a  telescope  of 
only  2j-inch  aperture.  It  is  about  740  times  larger 
than  the  Earth,  but  is  only  about  ninety-five  times  as 
heavy.  Its  density  is  less  than  one-eighth  that  of  the 
Earth,  or  about  seven- tenths  that  of  water,  or,  roughly 
speaking,  about  that  of  cork.  In  proportion  to  its  size, 
therefore,  Saturn  is  the  lightest  of  all  the  planets,  and 
is  probably  a  vast  mass  of  seething  vapours,  with  a  com- 


390  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

paratively  small,  intensely  hot,  and  relatively  condensed 
nucleus. 

According  to  Barnard's  measures,  its  mean  diameter  is 
73, 1 20  miles,  but  it  is  so  flattened  at  the  poles  and  bulged 
at  the  equator  that  the  polar  diameter  is  only  69,770 
miles,  while  the  equatorial  diameter  is  76,470  miles,  a 
difference  of  6700  miles.  So,  its  oblateness  or  polar 
compression,  which  amounts  to  about  A,  is  greater  than 
that  of  any  other  planet.  Its  average  period  of  rota- 
tion on  its  axis  is  ten  hours,  fourteen  minutes,  and 
twenty-four  seconds;  different  portions,  as  on  Jupiter, 
rotating  at  slightly  different  speeds. 

Saturn  revolves  about  the  Sun  in  an  orbit  a  trifle 
more  eccentric  than  that  of  Jupiter,  at  a  mean  distance 
of  886,000,000  miles,  in  a  little  less  than  twenty-nine 
and  a  half  terrestrial  years  (29.46  yrs.), — a  Saturnian 
year — at  a  velocity  of  about  six  miles  a  second.  Its 
distance  from  the  luminary  varies  between  911,000,000 
miles  at  aphelion,  and  861,000,000  miles  at  perihelion. 
From  the  Earth  the  planet's  distance  varies  between 
1,028,000,000  miles  at  the  most  remote  conjunction, 
and  744,000,000  miles  at  the  most  favourable  opposition. 
Its  synodic  period,  the  interval  from  opposition  to 
opposition,  is  378  days,  so  that  the  planet  returns  each 
year  about  thirteen  days  later  than  the  year  previous. 
It  travels  eastward  along  the  ecliptic  about  one  degree 
a  month,  and  remains,  on  an  average,  for  nearly  two 
and  a  half  years  in  each  constellation.  Once  each  year, 
when  in  opposition,  a  slight  apparent  retrograde  motion 
of  some  five  degrees  occurs,  due  to  the  Earth's  overtak- 
ing and  passing  the  planet. 

The  planet  was  in  opposition  December,  1913,  in  the 
constellation  Taurus,  and  the  next  opposition  will  oc- 
cur during  the  third  week  in  December,  1914,  when  the 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XXXVIII.     The  Planet  Saturn 

(Rings  on  edge,  showing  condensations) 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  391 

planet  will  be  about  on  the  border  line  between  Taurus 
and  Gemini,  and  will  be  at  its  brightest.  It  will  be  in 
opposition  again  the  first  week  in  January,  1916,  about 
the  middle  of  January,  1917,  and  near  the  last  of  Jan- 
uary in  1918.  In  1916  and  1 9 1 7  i t  will  be  in  the  constel- 
lation Gemini  and  in  1918  in  Cancer.  The  ring  will  be 
open  to  its  greatest  possible  extent  in  1914,  when  its 
southern  side  will  be  shown,  while  in  1928  the  northern 
side  of  the  ring  will  be  shown  open  at  its  widest.  The 
planet  is  brightest  when  in  the  most  easterly  part  of 
Taurus  and  in  Scorpio,  when  the  ring  system  is  widest 
open,  and  least  bright  when  in  the  last  half  of  Leo  and 
in  Aquarius,  when  the  ring  appears  edgewise  (Plate 
XXXVIII.),  and  is  so  thin  as  to  be  invisible  except  with 
powerful  telescopes. 

Saturn's  disk  like  that  of  Jupiter  is  darkest  at  the 
edges,  and  shows  a  number  of  belts  and  markings. 
The  belts  are  parallel  with  the  equator,  but  are  by  no 
means  so  definitely  outlined,  or  so  varied  in  colour, 
as  those  of  Jupiter.  The  equatorial  belt  is  brighter 
than  the  rest,  and  often  shows  a  faint  rose-coloured  tint, 
while  the  tropical  belts  are  of  a  grey-green  shade,  and 
the  polar  regions  of  a  leaden  colour.  At  times  brilliant 
white  spots  appear  upon  the  surface,  and  remain  visible 
for  a  number  of  weeks.  The  axis  of  the  planet  is 
inclined  from  a  perpendicular  to  the  plane  of  its  orbit 
about  27°,  consequently  the  seasons  are  similar  to  those 
of  the  Earth,  though  longer  and  much  more  accentuated, 
each  season  lasting  more  than  seven  terrestrial  years. 
The  planet's  supply  of  solar  light  and  heat  is  only  about 
one-ninetieth  of  that  received  by  the  Earth,  but  the 
globe  is  probably  intensely  hot  in  itself,  and  has  an 
exceedingly  luminous,  dense,  and  cloud-laden  atmos- 
phere. As  with  Jupiter,  the  heat  which  raises  the 


392  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

clouds  comes  from  the  planet  itself  and  not  from  the 
Sun.  Did  the  planet  depend  on  the  Sun  alone  for  heat, 
its  temperature  would  be  not  far  from  three  hundred 
degrees  below  zero,  Fahrenheit. 

The  most  striking  and  unique  feature  of  Saturn  is 
the  system  of  rings  which  girdles  its  equator,  and  which 
was  first  glimpsed  by  Galileo  in  1610,  but  was  first 
observed  in  its  true  form  by  Huyghens  in  1656.  The 
rings  are  three  in  number,  and  are  generally  referred  to 
as  A,  B,  and  C, — A  being  the  outer  ring.  They  lie 
one  within  the  other  in  the  same  plane,  and  are  so 
extremely  thin  that  their  estimated  thickness  is  not 
more  than  eighty  miles.  They  revolve  around  Saturn 
in  the  same  direction  as  the  planet  rotates  on  its  axis. 
Though  apparently  elliptical  in  form,  they  are  really 
circular,  their  elongated  appearance  being  due  to  the 
angle  at  which  they  are  seen  from  the  Earth.  They 
do  not  shine  of  themselves,  but  receive  their  light  from 
the  Sun,  and  as  G.  H.  Darwin,  son  of  Charles  Darwin 
the  great  biologist,  suggested,  probably  represent  merely 
a  passing  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  Saturnian  system. 
Somewhat  recently  Lowell  has  drawn  attention  again 
to  beads  on  the  rings,  which  are  thought  to  be  points 
of  collision  of  the  fragments  of  matter  composing  them. 

According  to  Barnard's  measures,  the  exterior 
diameter  of  the  outer  ring,  Ring  A,  is  approximately 
172,600  miles.  Its  width  is  11,060  miles,  and  it  is 
divided  into  two  nearly  equal  parts  by  the  so-called 
"Encke's  division."  It  is  separated  from  the  middle 
ring,  Ring  B,  by  a  dark  space,  known  as  "Cassini's 
division,"  which  is  sharp  and  distinct,  and  has  a  width 
of  2240  miles.  This  division  was  discovered  in  1675, 
by  the  celebrated  French  astronomer,  G.  D.  Cassini, 
the  first  director  of  the  Paris  Observatory.  Ring  B  is 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  393 

nearly  eighteen  thousand  miles  in  width,  and  is  the 
brightest  of  the  three.  Near  its  outer  edge  it  is  bril- 
liantly luminous,  but  at  its  inner  edge  it  fades  into  the 
inner  ring  (Ring  C)  which  is  but  slightly  luminous,  and 
is  sometimes  called  the  crepe  or  gauze  ring.  Ring  C  is 
10,900  miles  in  width,  and  is  nearly  six  thousand  (5865) 
miles  distant  from  Saturn.  It  has  a  dusky,  greyish 
appearance,  and  is  semi-transparent,  the  curve  and 
body  of  the  planet  being  visible  through  it.  It  was 
discovered  by  W.  C.  Bond  of  Harvard  in  1850.  Neither 
it  nor  Encke's  division  can  be  seen  except  in  the  largest 
telescopes.  The  rings  of  Saturn  are  believed  to  consist 
of  myriads  of  meteoric  particles,  each  circling  in  its 
own  individual  orbit,  but  all  keeping  so  close  together 
that  they  appear  like  three  solid  concentric  rings,  whirl- 
ing continually  around  the  great  planet.  According 
to  the  laws  which  govern  planetary  bodies,  the  particles 
which  are  nearest  the  planet  move  most  rapidly,  and 
those  which  are  farthest  move  most  slowly.  With  the 
aid  of  the  spectroscope,  Keeler,  in  1896,  found  that  the 
outside  of  the  ring  was  moving  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles 
a  second,  and  the  inside  at  the  rate  of  twelve  and  a  half 
miles  in  the  same  period  of  time. 

In  addition  to  the  rings,  Saturn  has  ten  satellites, 
which,  so  far  as  is  known,  is  more  than  any  other  planet 
of  the  solar  system  possesses.  They  all  revolve  outside 
the  rings,  and  with  the  exception  of  lapetus  and  Phoebe, 
revolve  nearly  in  the  plane  of  the  rings.  Their  names 
in  order  of  their  distance  from  Saturn  are:  Mimas, 
Enceladus,  Tethys,  Dione,  Rhea,  Titan,  Hyperion, 
Themis,  lapetus,  and  Phoebe.  Of  these  only  Titan 
and  lapetus  are  visible  in  small  telescopes,  the  others 
requiring  powerful  instruments.  Titan,  the  largest 
and  brightest  of  the  satellites,  has  a  diameter  of  2720 


394  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

miles,  and  was  first  seen  by  Huyghens  in  1655.  It  is 
771,000  miles  distant  from  the  planet,  and  has  a  period 
of  fifteen  days,  twenty-two  hours,  and  forty-one  minutes, 
lapetus  with  about  two-thirds  the  diameter  of  Titan, 
is  2,225,000  miles  distant  from  Saturn,  and  has  a  period 
of  about  seventy-nine  days  and  eight  hours.  It  was 
discovered  by  Cassini  in  1671,  and  seems  to  be  much 
brighter  on  one  side  than  the  other.  Rhea,  the  third 
brightest  moon,  with  a  diameter  of  some  1500  miles,  is 
332,000  miles  distant.  Mimas,  the  closest  to  Saturn 
of  the  ten,  with  a  diameter  of  some  600  miles,  is 
117,000  miles  distant,  and  revolves  about  that  planet 
in  twenty-two  hours  and  thirty-seven  minutes.  Hy- 
perion revolves  in  a  very  eccentric  orbit,  at  a  distance 
of  934,000  miles.  Dione,  238,000  miles  distant,  and 
Tethys  186,000  miles,  were  both  discovered  in  1684 
by  Cassini.  Enceladus,  with  a  distance  of  157,000 
miles,  was,  together  with  coy  Mimas,  discovered  by 
Sir  William  Herschel,  in  1789.  Phoebe,  with  an  esti- 
mated diameter  of  150  miles,  is  7,996,000  miles  distant 
from  its  primary,  and  has  a  period  of  rather  more  than 
546  days.  It  is  a  remarkable  and  independent  little 
moon  circling  in  an  eccentric  orbit  in  a  " retrograde" 
direction,  that  is,  from  east  to  west.  It  is  the  ninth 
satellite,  and  was  found  by  photography,  by  W.  H. 
Pickering  in  1899.  The  tenth  of  Saturn's  train  of 
satellites,  Themis,  also  a  photographic  discovery,  is 
906,000  miles  distant  from  the  planet.  It  is  a  tiny  body, 
with  an  estimated  diameter  of  not  more  than  forty  miles, 
revolving  round  its  primary  in  approximately  twenty- 
one  days.  It  was  found  by  W.  H.  Pickering  in  1905. 

In  mythology,  Saturn  or  Cronos,  the  youngest  of  the 
Titans,  was  the  son  of  Uranus  and  Gaea,  and  father  of 
Jupiter,  Neptune,  Pluto,  Juno,  etc.  He  was  King  of 


Anderson 


PLATE  XXXIX.     The  Eight  Columns  of  the  Temple  of  Saturn 
at  Rome 


Jupiter  and  Saturn  395 

the  Universe,  and  was  worshipped  by  the  Romans  even 
in  their  prehistoric  days,  but  his  temple  was  not  erected 
on  the  Capitoline  until  498  B.C.  The  original  Temple 
of  Saturn  was  built  by  the  Tarquins,  and  was  sup- 
posed to  mark  the  site  of  the  Sabine  altar  to  the  god, 
and  the  limit  of  the  wood  of  refuge  mentioned  by 
Virgil.  It  was  the  only  temple  in  Rome  where  heads 
were  uncovered,  and  tapers  were  first  introduced  in 
Roman  religious  ceremony  in  this  fane. 

Next  to  the  Temple  of  Vesta,  that  of  Saturn  is  the 
oldest  in  Rome.  "Its  beginnings,"  says  F.  Marion 
Crawford,  "are  lost  in  the  dawnless  night  of  Time — 
of  Time  who  was  Kronos,  of  Kronos  who  was  Saturn, 
of  Saturn  who  gave  his  mysterious  name  to  the  Satur- 
nalia"— festivals  which  were  celebrated  as  a  harvest- 
home  observance,  about  the  time  of  the  winter  solstice — 
"in  which  Carnival  had  its  origin. "  Before  this  temple 
Pompeysat  surrounded  by  soldiers,  listening  to  Cicero's 
defence  of  Milo,  when  he  received  the  personal  address, 
Te  enim  jam  appello,  et  ea  voce  ut  me  exaudire  possis. 
(Ciceronis  Pro  Milone  Oratio,  Ch.  XXV.) 

The  temple  was  restored  in  the  early  years  of  the  reign 
of  Augustus,  and  again,  as  the  inscription  on  the  entabla- 
ture tells,  in  A.D.  283.  Eight  granite  Ionic  columns 
(Plate  XXXIX.)  still  stand  upon  a  part  of  the  founda- 
tion, and  these  with  some  steps,  that  perhaps  led  to  the 
"^Erarium,"  or  Treasury  of  Rome,  are  all  that  can  be 
seen  of  the  ancient  shrine.  Saturn  was  known  as  the 
god  of  time,  and  was  portrayed  as  a  decrepit  old  man, 
with  sickle  and  hour-glass.  The  Golden  Age  is  said  to 
have  been  during  his  reign,  when  according  to  Hesiod, 

Men  lived  like  gods,  with  minds  devoid  of  care, 
Away  from  toils  and  misery. 


CHAPTER  X 

URANUS  AND  NEPTUNE 

REVOLVING  around  the  Sun  as  its  seventh  planet  is  the 
huge  globe  Uranus,  to  which  belongs  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first  world  discovered  in  historic  times.  It 
was  found  accidentally  by  the  elder  Herschel  (William), 
an  amateur  astronomer,  and  organist  of  the  Octagon 
Chapel  at  Bath,  England,  on  March  13,  1781,  while 
examining  the  small  stars  near  Eta  Geminorum. 
Strange  to  say,  it  had  been  seen  many  times  before 
Herschel' s  discovery,  but  on  account  of  the  slowness 
of  its  motion  had  been  catalogued  as  an  ordinary  star. 
Herschel  proposed  to  name  the  new  planet  Georgium 
Sidus — the  Georgian  Star — after  his  patron,  the  penuri- 
ous monarch  "Farmer  George,"  who  had  bestowed  on 
him  knighthood  and  the  not  very  magnificent  pension 
of  two  hundred  pounds  a  year.  Later,  however,  it  was 
known  as  Herschel,  and  finally,  on  the  suggestion  of 
Bode,  as  Uranus,  its  present  classical  title.  On  a  clear 
and  moonless  night,  when  near  opposition,  it  looks  as 
bright  as  a  sixth-magnitude  star,  and  can  be  detected 
with  the  unaided  eye,  when  the  observer  knows  where 
to  look  for  it.  An  opera-glass  or  prism  binocular  field- 
glass  will  show  it  quite  well.  In  the  telescope  it  appears 
as  a  pale,  greenish-blue,  disk,  traversed  by  some  faint 
markings. 

396 


Uranus  and  Neptune  397 

The  planet's  mean  distance  from  the  Sun  is  1,782, 
000,000  miles,  and  the  eccentricity  of  its  orbit  is  some- 
what less  than  that  of  Jupiter,  but  more  than  that  of 
Neptune.  Its  diameter  is  3 1 ,900  miles,  and  it  completes 
a  revolution  around  the  Sun  in  about  eighty-four  ter- 
restrial years  (84.02  yrs.),  at  the  rate  of  a  little  over 
four  miles  a  second.  The  inclination  of  its  equator  to 
the  plane  of  its  orbit  is  about  ninety  degrees.  It 
rotates  like  a  top  rolling  on  its  side,  in  a  period  of  some 
ten  or  twelve  hours,  and  in  that  position  travels  along  its 
vast  orbit,  which  deviates  less  than  half  a  degree  from 
the  line  of  the  ecliptic.  It  rotates  in  a  "retrograde'* 
or  backward  direction,  but  it  revolves  in  the  direction 
pursued  by  all  the  other  planets,  a  direction  called 
"counter-clockwise."  Its  volume  is  about  sixty-five 
times  that  of  the  Earth,  while  its  mass  is  only  about 
fourteen  and  a  half  times  the  Earth's  mass.  It  is  about 
one-fifth  as  dense  as  the  Earth,  and  its  force  of  gravity 
is  about  nine-tenths  that  of  the  Earth.  It  is  probably 
in  much  the  same  vaporous  state  as  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
and  is  in  a  condition  of  great  heat.  From  observations 
made  at  Lowell  Observatory  it  is  inferred  that  it  has 
an  extensive  atmosphere  made  up  largely  of  light  gases. 
According  to  Miiller  its  mean  albedo,  or  intrinsic  bright- 
ness, is  0.73,  or  almost  that  of  cloud. 

The  synodic  period  of  the  planet  is  some  369!  days,  so 
that  oppositions  occur  only  four  or  five  days  later  each 
year.  Thus  it  was  in  opposition  in  1913  on  July  29th, 
and  will  be  in  opposition  again  on  August  2d,  1914, 
August  6th,  1915,  and  so  on.  Uranus  remains  in  each 
constellation  about  seven  years,  and  is  now  in  Capri- 
cornus,  about  twenty-four  degrees  east  of  the  Milk 
Dipper  in  Sagittarius.  Its  advance  among  the  stars 
amounts  to  a  little  over  4!  degrees  a  year. 


398  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

The  planet  has  four  satellites,  known  as  Ariel,  Um- 
briel,  Titania,  and  Oberon.  Titania  and  Oberon  were 
discovered  by  Herschel  in  1787,  while  Umbriel  and 
Ariel  were  discovered  in  1851,  the  former  by  Struve, 
and  the  latter  by  Lassell.  These  four  satellites  are 
all  comparatively  small  bodies,  less  than  a  thousand 
miles  in  diameter,  and  are  remarkable,  in  that  their 
orbits  are  almost  perpendicular  to  the  plane  of  the 
planet's  orbit,  and  that  the  motions  of  all  of  them  are 
"retrograde."  The  backward  direction  of  the  satel- 
lites is,  however,  from  north  to  south,  with  a  slight 
inclination  westward.  Ariel  the  nearest  satellite  re- 
volves round  Uranus  in  two  days  and  twelve  hours, 
at  a  mean  distance  of  120,000  miles;  Umbriel  in  four 
days  and  three  hours,  at  a  mean  distance  of  167,000 
miles;  Titania,  in  eight  days  and  sixteen  hours,  at  a 
mean  distance  of  273,000  miles;  and  Oberon  in  thirteen 
days  and  eleven  hours,  at  a  mean  distance  of  365,000 
miles.  Titania  is  larger  than  Oberon,  while  Ariel  and 
Umbriel  are  both  smaller  than  either  of  them.  Under 
favourable  conditions,  the  two  former  are  visible  in  a 
six-inch  telescope,  but  the  two  latter  can  only  be  seen 
in  the  largest  instruments. 

In  classical  mythology,  Uranus  or  Ouranus,  was  the 
son  of  Gaea,  the  Earth,  and  father  of  the  Titans,  Cy- 
clopes, and  Giants,  all  personages  of  great  renown. 
According  to  the  Greek  poets,  with  him  began  the  first 
race  of  gods.  He  hated  his  children,  and  fearing  to 
lose  his  kingdom  by  their  violence,  cast  them  into  Tar- 
tarus, and  kept  them  prisoners.  At  the  instigation  of 
Gaea,  and  headed  by  Saturn,  they  rose  against  him  and 
overthrew  his  rule.  The  government  of  the  world  was 
then  given  to  Saturn,  who  in  his  turn  lost  it  through  his 
son  Jupiter,  as  was  predicted  to  him  by  Uranus  and  Gaea. 


Uranus  and  Neptune  399 

NEPTUNE 

The  outermost  planet  of  the  solar  system,  so  far  as 
is  known,  is  Neptune,  the  eighth  planet  in  order  from 
the  Sun,  and  the  third  in  mass  and  volume  (Plate  XL.). 
It  was  discovered  by  calculation,  and  its  discovery  is 
regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  mathe- 
matical astronomy.  From  slight  irregularities  in  the 
movements  of  Uranus,  amounting  to  about  if  minutes, 
two  young,  able  men — J.  C.  Adams,  of  England,  and  U. 
J.  J.  LeVerrier,  of  France — independently  calculated 
where  the  unknown  disturber  (a  planet)  ought  to  be. 
Adams  finished  his  results  first,  in  October,  1845,  and 
communicated  them  to  the  Astronomer  Royal,  Airy, 
asking  that  the  planet  be  searched  for.  No  active  steps, 
however,  were  taken  in  the  search,  by  the  British  of- 
ficial astronomers,  until  the  following  summer.  Mean- 
while LeVerrier  finished  his  computations,  and  sent  the 
results  to  the  young  German  observer  Galle  at  the  Berlin 
Observatory,  of  which  Encke  was  the  director.  On  Sep- 
tember 23d,  1846,  the  very  first  night  after  receiving 
LeVerrier's  letter,  Galle  began  the  search,  and  found  the 
perturbing  planet  within  less  than  a  degree  of  the  spot 
designated  by  LeVerrier.  Hence  it  appears  that  but  for 
the  official  slackness  of  the  British  astronomers  in  the 
use  of  Adams's  computations,  the  planet  might  have  been 
seen  months  before.  The  honour  of  the  discovery  is 
to-day  given  equally  to  Adams  and  LeVerrier.  At  first, 
the  newly-discovered  body  was  called  LeVerrier,  but 
was  later,  at  the  suggestion  of  LeVerrier,  and  in  keeping 
with  the  custom  of  naming  the  planets  after  the  Olym- 
pian deities,  given  the  name  of  Neptune.  Since  its 
discovery  it  has  been  ascertained  that  it  had  been  seen 
for  more  than  half  a  century,  but  had  been  taken  for 


400  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

an  ordinary  star.  It  is  as  bright  as  an  eighth-magni- 
tude star,  and  though  invisible  to  the  naked  eye  can 
be  seen  in  a  good  prism  binocular.  In  a  telescope  of 
considerable  power  its  disk  appears  of  a  bluish  or 
leaden  tint. 

The  mean  distance  of  Neptune  from  the  Sun  is 
2,791,500,000  miles.  Its  orbit  is  less  eccentric  than 
that  of  any  other  planet  except  Venus,  but  the  eccen- 
tricity is  nevertheless  sufficient  to  make  its  distance 
vary  some  fifty  million  miles.  It  revolves  around  the 
Sun  " direct"  (that  is  from  west  to  east),  as  all  the 
other  planets  do,  in  a  little  less  than  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  (164.78)  terrestrial  years,  at  the  rate  of  3f 
miles  a  second.  The  diameter  of  the  planet  is  nearly 
thirty-five  thousand  (34,800)  miles.  Its  axis  is  even 
more  tilted  over  than  that  of  Uranus,  and  its  "re- 
trograde" motion  thereon  is  pronounced.  Its  rotation 
period  is  not  known,  but  it  is  thought  to  be  short. 
Its  volume  is  nearly  one  hundred  times  that  of  the 
Earth,  and  its  mass  about  seventeen  times  the  Earth 's 
mass.  Its  mean  density  (0.20)  is  somewhat  less  than 
that  of  Uranus.  The  solar  light  and  heat  it  receives 
are  but  one  nine-hundredth  part  of  what  the  Earth 
takes.  Owing  to  its  immense  distance  and  small 
apparent  size  practically  nothing  is  known  of  its 
surface  details. 

Neptune  changes  its  position  in  the  sky  rather  more 
than  two  degrees  a  year,  and  remains  on  an  average 
about  thirteen  years  in  each  constellation.  Since  its 
discovery,  it  has  passed  through  the  constellations 
Aquarius,  Pisces,  Aries,  Taunts  and  Gemini,  and  is  now 
in  Cancer.  It  will  be  in  opposition  on  January  i6th, 
1914  and  oppositions  will  occur  about  two  days  later 
each  year  thereafter. 


Yerkes  Observatory 

PLATE  XL.     The  Planet  Neptune  and  its  Satellite 


Uranus  and  Neptune  401 

So  far  as  is  known,  Neptune  is  attended  by  but  one 
satellite  (Plate  XL.),  which  was  discovered  by  Lassell, 
an  English  amateur  astronomer,  on  October  10,  1846, 
and  appears  as  a  star  of  about  the  fourteenth  magni- 
tude. It  has  an  estimated  diameter  of  about  two 
thousand  miles,  and  is  situated  at  a  distance  of  about 
223,000  miles  from  the  planet,  around  which  it  revolves 
in  five  days,  twenty-one  hours,  and  eight  minutes, 
which  constitute  a  Neptunian  month.  Like  the 
Uranian  moons,  this  nameless  satellite  performs  its 
revolution  round  its  primary  in  a  "retrograde"  manner. 

In  mythological  story,  Neptune,  after  whom  the 
planet  was  named,  was  the  son  of  Saturn  and  Rhea,  and 
husband  of  Amphitrite  the  daughter  of  Oceanus  and 
Tethys.  He  was  identified  with  the  Greek  Poseidon, 
and  was  the  chief  marine  divinity  of  the  Romans.  By 
one  word  he  could  stir  up  or  calm  the  wildest  storm. 

He  spake,  and  round  about  him  called  the  clouds 
And  roused  the  ocean — wielding  in  his  hand 
The  trident. 

HOMER  (Bryant's  tr.). 

He  is  commonly  represented  as  a  bearded  man  of  stately 
presence,  seated  in  a  shell  chariot  drawn  by  dolphins  or 
sea-horses,  and  surrounded  by  Tritons  and  sea-nymphs, 
and  holding  in  his  hand  a  trident  with  which  he  rules 
the  waves. 
26 


CHAPTER  XI 

COMETS  AND  METEORS 

AMONG  the  most  interesting  of  objects  in  the  noc- 
turnal sky  are  those  mysterious,  wandering  bodies 
called  comets  and  meteors,  which  from  the  very  earliest 
ages  have  attracted  widespread  attention.  Unlike  the 
planets  they  are  not  confined  to  the  limits  of  the  zodiac, 
but  appear  in  almost  every  quarter  of  the  heavens. 
Up  to  the  present  time  there  have  been  seen  and  re- 
corded some  twelve  hundred  comets,  about  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  have  been  identified,  and  the  orbits  of 
nearly  five  hundred  have  been  calculated.  During 
the  last  century  there  were  thirteen  visible  to  the 
unaided  eye.  Some  •  five  or  six  comets  are  usually 
discovered  each  year,  most  of  them  being  telescopic. 
They  remain  visible  for  periods  varying  from  a  few 
days  to  more  than  a  year;  including  telescopic  vision, 
the  average  duration  of  visibility  is  about  three  months. 
Some  comets  have  been  visible  in  the  daytime ;  possibly 
about  four  or  five  are  so  visible  in  a  century. 

About  eighty-five  out  of  the  several  hundred  comets 
known  seem  to  have  elliptic  orbits,  fourteen  seem  to  have 
hyperbolic  orbits,  and  all  the  others,  including  most  of 
the  great  comets,  move  around  the  sun  in  sensibly 
parabolic  orbits.  Comets  with  exactly  parabolic  or 
hyperbolic  orbits — open  curves — may  be  regarded  as 

402 


Comets  and  Meteors  403 

celestial  messengers  which  visit  the  local  solar  system 
once,  and  then  recede  towards  the  infinite  depth  of 
cosmic  space  from  which  they  came,  apparently  never  to 
return  again.  Comets  which  move  in  ellipses  of  known 
eccentricity  are  supposed  to  have  been  drawn  out  of 
their  original  parabolic  orbits,  into  elliptic  orbits  by 
the  attraction  of  one  of  the  larger  planets.  They  return 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sun  at  short  or  long  inter- 
vals, with  periodic  regularity,  and  may  be  regarded  as 
assured  members  of  the  local  solar  system. 

Comets  whose  periods  are  less  than  one  hundred 
years  are  termed  periodic  comets.  They  are  about 
sixty  in  number,  and  nearly  half  of  them  have  been 
observed  more  than  once.  A  number  of  the  periodic 
comets  have  their  orbits  extending  to  the  orbit  of  the 
giant  Jupiter.  Still  others  go  as  far  as  Saturn  and 
Uranus,  and  some  to  Neptune.  The  orbits  of  all 
comets  whose  periods  are  less  than  eight  years  pass 
very  near  the  orbit  of  Jupiter.  The  orbits  of  the 
seventy  to  eighty-year  comets  come  very  close  to  the 
orbit  of  Neptune.  The  thirty- three-year  comet  passes 
very  near  the  orbit  of  Uranus.  All  periodic  comets  of 
less  periods  than  eighty  years  follow  direct  motion, 
with  the  exception  of  Halley's  comet  and  Temple's 
comet  of  1886,  which  have  retrograde  motion.  The 
long-period  comets  and  the  parabolic  and  hyperbolic 
comets  incline  to  retrograde  motion. 

Some  thirty-two  of  the  comets  that  travel  in  elliptic 
orbits  of  short  periods,  and  of  relatively  small  eccen- 
tricities, are  known  as  "Jupiter's  comet  family,"  and 
have  periodic  times  ranging  from  three  to  eight  years. 
The  planet  Saturn  has  a  similar  family  of  two  comets, 
Uranus  three,  and  Neptune  six.  There  is  a  small  group 
of  six  periodic  comets  of  between  seventy  and  eighty 


404  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

years,  which  have  been  considered  as  members  of  the 
local  solar  system,  although  only  three  of  them  have 
appeared  a  second  time,  namely  Halley's,  Olber's,  and 
Pons's.  These  three  complete  their  periods  in  years  as 
follows:  Halley's  76.68,  Olber's  74.05,  and  Pons's  70.68. 
Many  comets  are  on  record  with  periods  of  from  eighty 
to  ten  thousand  years ;  a  few  with  periods  of  from  thir- 
teen thousand  up  to  nearly  three  million  years. 

Of  some  twenty-seven  interior  or  short-period  comets 
recorded,  thirteen  have  passed  their  perihelion  more 
than  once.  The  most  favourably  known  complete  their 
periods  in  years  as  follows:  Encke's  (discovered  in 
1818)  3.31,  Winnecke's  5.54,  Temple's  5.15,  Faye's  7.44, 
Brooks's  7.07,  Holmes's  6.85,  and  Tuttle's  13.66. 

Formerly  all  cometary  apparitions  were  taken 
seriously,  and  were  thought  to  be  signs  from  heaven 
foretelling  great  events  in  the  world.  Up  to  even 
Elizabethan  times,  it  was  popularly  supposed  that  royal 
deaths  were  heralded  by  these  strange  and  mysterious 
visitants.  In  Julius  Ccesar,  Shakespeare  makes  Cal- 
phurnia  exclaim  as  she  pleads  with  Caesar,  her  husband, 
not  to  venture  forth  upon  the  Ides  of  March : 

When  beggars  die,  there  are  no  comets  seen, 

The  Heavens  themselves  blaze  forth  the  death  of  Princes. 

In  the  Manchester  Art  Gallery  is  the  well-known 
picture  " Beware  the  Ides  of  March,"  by  Sir  E.  J. 
Poynter,  in  which  the  comet  is  depicted. 

A  comet — probably  Halley's — sometimes  called  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror's  comet,  which  appeared  in  April, 
1066,  the  year  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  struck  terror 
to  the  Saxons,  and  was  regarded  as  presaging  the  suc- 
cess of  the  invasion  and  the  death  of  Harold.  "Nova 


Lowell  Observatory 

PLATE  XLI.     Halley's  ^Cornet,  May  13,  1910 

(Venus  to  right.     Faint  line  across  tail  near  head  is  meteor  trail) 


Comets  and  Meteors  405 

stella,  novus  rex11  ("  A  new  star,  a  new  sovereign ")  was 
the  proverb  of  the  time.  In  the  famous  Bayeux 
Tapestry,  said  to  have  been  made  as  an  ornament  for 
the  nave  of  Bayeux  Cathedral,  appears  a  representation 
of  the  comet  and  of  the  alarm  and  amazement  of  the 
people.  The  legend  over  the  picture  is  "  Isti  mirantur 
stellam."  The  piece  is  a  long  narrow  strip  of  embroid- 
ery executed  in  many  colours  on  a  cream- white  ground. 
Its  length  was  two  hundred  and  thirty  feet,  and  its 
width  only  nineteen  inches. 

In  The  Seasons — Summer — the  poet  Thomson  has 
this  aiiusion  to  the  apparition  of  a  comet : 

Lo !  from  the  dread  immensity  of  space, 
Returning,  with  accelerated  course, 
The  rushing  comet  to  the  sun  descends: 
And,  as  he  shrinks  below  the  shading  earth, 
With  awful  train  projected  o  'er  the  heavens, 
The  guilty  nations  tremble. 

Three  years  after  the  Turks,  under  Mahomet  II, 
had  taken  Constantinople,  and  their  armies  were 
threatening  to  advance  westward  into  Europe,  a 
comet — Halley's — appeared.  This  was  in  June,  1456, 
when  John  Hunniades,  the  Pope 's  general,  was  defend- 
ing Belgrade  against  the  Moslem  hordes.  Its  appari- 
tion at  this  time  was  considered  a  certain  sign  of  the 
anger  of  the  Almighty,  and  is  said  to  have  paralysed 
both  armies  with  fear.  A  universal  panic  prevailed 
among  the  people,  and  some  even  thought  the  day  of 
judgment  (Dies  Irce)  was  at  hand.  There  is  an  oft- 
told  story  of  the  Pope  and  the  Comet — which  has  been 
proved  to  be  a  myth — to  the  effect  that  so  alarmed  had 
Christendom  become  at  the  simultaneous  apparition 
of  the  Turk  and  the  comet,  Pope  Calixtus  III,  great- 


406  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

uncle  of  the  notorious  Lucretia  and  Caesar  Borgia,  issued 
a  bull  against  the  celestial  visitant,  and  ordered  that  the 
bells  in  all  the  churches  should  be  rung  each  day  at  noon, 
and  that  Ave  Marias  should  be  repeated  by  the  faithful 
everywhere  three  times  a  day  instead  of  two,  and  ap- 
pended this  additional  supplication:  "Lord,  save  us 
from  the  devil,  the  Turk,  and  the  terrifying  comet." 

History  records  that  the  Turks  were  defeated  while 
the  comet  was  still  visible,  and  Mahomet  was  compelled 
to  raise  the  siege  of  Belgrade;  and  that  within  ten  days 
after  its  appearance  the  comet  began  to  diminish  in 
brilliancy  and  extent,  and  finally,  to  the  great  relief 
of  Europe,  it  entirely  disappeared.  In  commemoration 
of  the  great  victory,  comet-money  was  struck,  some  of 
which,  it  is  said,  is  still  in  existence. 

Maunder,  in  his  Astronomy  of  the  Bible,  leans  to  the 
suggestion  made  by  several  writers  that  when  Jerusalem 
was  wasted  by  pestilence,  and  David  offered  up  the 
sacrifice  of  intercession  in  the  threshing-floor  of  Oman 
the  Jebusite,  the  King  may  have  seen  in  the  scymitar- 
like  tail  of  a  comet  (such  as  the  great  comet  of  1882), 
God's  "minister,  a  flaming  fire"  (Psalm  civ.,  4),  "the 
angel  of  the  Lord  stand  between  the  earth  and  the 
heaven,  having  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand  stretched 
out  over  Jerusalem"  (I  Chron.  xxi.,  16). 

Milton,  England's  greatest  epic  poet,  compares  the 
cloven-hoofed  Satan  to  a  comet,  and  the  tail  is  described 
as  setting  fire  to  the  sky: 

Incensed  with  indignation,  Satan  stood, 
Unterrified,  and  like  a  comet  burned, 
That  fires  the  length  of  Ophiuchus  huge 
In  the  arctic  sky,  and  from  his  horrid  hair 
Shakes  pestilence  and  war. 

(Paradise  Lost,  Bk.  II). 


Comets  and  Meteors  407 

Further  on  in  the  same  poem,  when,  prior  to  the  removal 
of  Adam  and  Eve,  the  Cherubim  descend  to  take 
possession  of  the  Garden,  he  makes  another  allusion 
to  a  comet — an  allusion,  perchance,  supporting  the 
idea  that  a  comet  was  "  the  flaming  sword  which  turned 
every  way,  to  keep  the  way  of  the  tree  of  life:" 

High  in  front  advanced, 

The  brandished  sword  of  God  before  them  blazed 
Fierce  as  a  comet;  which,  with  torrid  heat 
And  vapors  as  the  Libyan  air  adust, 
Began  to  parch  that  temperate  clime. 

(Paradise  Lost,  Bk.  XII). 

Among  the  superstitious,  the  comet  of  181 1 — the  most 
remarkable  comet  which  has  appeared  in  modern  times, 
since  1680 — was  considered  the  dread  harbinger  of  the 
War  of  1812.  It  was  also  this  comet  that  attracted  the 
attention  of  Napoleon  in  connection  with  his  invasion 
of  Russia,  and  divers  omens  were  drawn  from  it.  Fur- 
thermore, the  most  beautiful  comet  of  which  there  is 
any  record — Donati's  of  1858 — was  the  accredited  fore- 
runner of  the  American  Civil  War! 

By  the  ancients,  comets  were  thought  to  be  hairy  ob- 
jects, from  the  appearance  of  the  tails,  hence  the  origin  of 
the  term  "comet, "  from  the  Greek  XO^YJTYJC;,  signifying 
"long-haired."  A  typical  comet  visible  to  the  naked 
eye  is  an  illuminated,  filmy  object,  consisting  usually 
of  three  parts — the  nucleus,  the  coma,  and  the  tail. 
The  nucleus  and  coma  taken  together  constitute  the 
head,  which  is  invariably  the  most  important  part  of  the 
comet.  The  heads  of  comets  vary  greatly  in  size,  being 
anywhere  from  ten  thousand  miles  up  to  more  than  a 
million  miles  in  diameter.  The  nucleus,  which  contains 
nearly  all  the  mass  of  a  typical  comet,  varies  from  one 


408  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

hundred  miles  to  over  five  thousand  miles  in  diameter. 
The  luminous  train,  which  presents  the  appearance  of 
a  stream  of  silvery-grey  light,  by  which  most  naked-eye 
comets  are  attended,  and  which  is  the  chief  glory  of  a 
large  comet,  is  a  continuance  of  the  coma,  and  is  called 
the  tail. 

Some  comets  have  tails  of  enormous  length,  while 
others,  a  much  larger  number,  have  little  or  no  tails. 
The  tailed  comets  are  frequently  visible  to  the  naked 
eye,  while  the  tailless  ones  are  not.  -  Nearly  all  the  large 
and  brilliant  comets  have  been  accompanied  by  long 
tails,  the  tail  of  the  great  comet  of  1843  being  two  hun- 
dred million  miles  long.  A  remarkable  peculiarity  of 
the  tails  of  all  comets  is  that  they  are  directed  approxi- 
mately away  from  the  sun. 

The  nucleus,  or  central  part  of  a  comet's  head,  is 
made  up  of  meteorites,  loosely  packed  together  with 
wide  interspaces,  and  various  earthy  substances  in 
which  hydrogen  and  other  gases  are  absorbed.  The 
meteorites  may  vary  in  size  from  fine  dust  to  bodies  of 
considerable  proportion.  They  consist  largely  of  iron 
or  meteoric  stone,  with  about  five  per  cent,  of  nickel. 
The  tails  of  comets  consist  of  gaseous  matter,  such  as  hy- 
drogen, cyanogen,  and  other  hydro-carbon  compounds, 
and  at  times,  also,  of  vapour  of  sodiumand  iron,  mingled, 
perhaps,  with  minute  solid  particles,  subjected  to  a 
strong  repulsive  force,  which  drives  them  away  from  the 
sun  with  enormous  velocity.  Nearly  all  of  the  light 
of  comets  comes  from  an  electric  illumination  of  the 
gaseous  matter,  which  in  the  tail  is  in  a  highly  rarefied 
state. 

Two  leading  theories  have  been  advanced  to  account 
for  the  tails  of  comets.  One  of  these,  the  theory  of  a 
Russian  astronomer,  Bredichin,  presumes  an  electrical 


Comets  and  Meteors  409 

action  emanating  from  the  sun ;  the  other,  that  of  a  Swed- 
ish scientist,  Arrhenius,  supposes  a  pressure  or  push  of  the 
sun 's  light  and  heat  waves,  termed  "  radiation  pressure. " 
However,  as  Pickering  states,  all  that  we  at  present 
know  is  that  "  it  is  the  effect  of  the  sun  upon  the  comet 
that  creates  its  tail;  just  how  it  acts  we  do  not  know." 

The  best  classification  of  tails  is  that  of  Bredichin. 
He  divides  comets'  tails  into  three  principal  types: 
the  straight  or  hydrogen  tail,  like  the  tail  of  the  great 
comet  of  1843;  the  ordinary  curved  tail  of  the  hydro- 
carbons, such  as  the  broad  streamer  of  Donati's  comet 
of  1858;  and  the  short,  brush-like,  stubby  tails  of 
metallic  vapours.  The  repulsive  forces  in  these  differ- 
ent types  are,  respectively,  from  12  to  15,  2  to  4,  and 
1 .5  times  that  of  the  attractive  action  due  to  gravitation. 

All  the  tails  are  hollow,  luminous  cones  or  cylinders, 
of  which  only  the  sides  are  generally  visible.  Every  part 
of  the  comet  is  so  transparent  that  even  faint  stars  have 
been  seen  shining  through  the  most  brilliant  portions, 
without  any  apparent  diminution  of  their  lustre. 

A  notable  example  of  comets  breaking  up  and  dis- 
appearing is  that  of  Biela's  comet,  a  short-period  comet 
which  was  first  seen  in  1826.  It  had  an  orbital  period 
of  between  six  and  seven  years,  and  continued  to  be 
regularly  visible  until  1852,  when  it  vanished  from  sight 
in  interplanetary  space,  and  has  not  been  seen  since. 
In  its  orbit,  however,  travels  a  large  meteor  swarm. 

Occasionally,  as  a  result  of  the  disturbing  attraction 
of  Jupiter,  radical  changes  in  cometary  orbits  have 
occurred,  notably  in  the  cases  of  Lexell's  comet  of 
1770,  and  of  Brooks' s  comet  of  1886.  The  giant  planet 
is  said  to  have  so  wrenched  the  Brooks  comet  out  of 
its  course,  " derailed  it"  as  it  were,  as  to  change  its 
period  from  twenty-seven  to  seven  years. 


410  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Among  the  remarkable  comets,  many  of  which  are 
celebrated  in  history,  are  the  comet  of  1680,  notable 
as  being  the  one  to  which  Newton's  theory  of  gravita- 
tion was  first  applied,  and  the  great  periodic  comet 
of  1682.  The  latter — the  most  famous  comet  that 
has  ever  been  known,  and  the  first  to  make  a  pre- 
dicted return — was  discovered  by  Edmund  Halley, 
and  is  therefore  called  Halley's  comet.  For  over  two 
thousand  years  it  has  visited  the  sun's  domain  with 
periodic  regularity  once  in  every  seventy-five  to 
seventy-seven  years,  and  has  been  seen  at  least  twenty- 
eight  times  by  the  astonished  eyes  of  man.  At  its 
last  appearance  (1910),  it  made  a  rather  poor  display 
and  was  a  disappointment  to  the  public  and  astrono- 
mers alike  (Plates  XLI.  and  XLIL).  It  may  here  be 
noted  that  in  comet-pictures  the  stars  usually  appear 
as  bright  streaks  and  not  as  points,  for  the  reason  that 
the  photographic  telescope  is  adjusted  to  keep  pace 
with  the  comet  rather  than  with  the  stars. 

The  great  comet  of  1811,  to  which  the  wonderful 
vintage  of  that  year  was  ascribed,  was  a  magnificent 
object,  and  was  visible  for  nearly  a  year  and  a  half. 
Its  nucleus  was  four  hundred  and  twenty-eight  miles 
in  diameter,  and  of  a  ruddy  hue,  and  was  enclosed  within 
a  nebulous  globe  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand miles  across.  The  length  of  the  tail  was  one 
hundred  and  thirty  million  miles,  and  its  breadth  nearly 
fifteen  million  miles.  The  following  lines  were  ad- 
dressed to  it  by  "The  Ettrick  Shepherd": 

Stranger  of  heaven,  I  bid  thee  hail! 
Shred  from  the  pall  of  glory  riven, 
That  flashest  in  celestial  gale 
Broad  pennon  of  the  King  of  Heaven. 


Yerkes  Observato 


PLATE  XLII.     Halley's  Comet,  May  29,  1910 

(The  tail  is  about  8°  long) 


Comets  and  Meteors  411 

Whate  'er  portends  thy  front  of  fire 
And  streaming  locks,  so  lovely  pale, 
Or  peace  to  man  or  judgment  dire, 
Stranger  of  heaven,  I  bid  thee  hail! 

The  splendid  comet  of  1843  was  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  of  modern  times,  and  also  marked  a  rich 
vintage  year.  It  came  so  close  to  the  sun  that  the  two 
surfaces  were  only  thirty- two  thousand  miles  apart. 
The  length  of  its  tail  was  about  two  hundred  million 
miles. 

The  finest  comet  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  the 
comet  of  1858,  called  Donati's  comet.  It  was  remark- 
able for  the  intense  brilliancy  of  its  nucleus,  and  the 
magnitude  and  artistic  conformation  of  its  tail.  It 
reached  perihelion  the  latter  part  of  September,  and 
was  visible  to  the  naked  eye  for  over  three  months. 
Donati's  comet  and  DeCheseaux's  of  1744,  are  consid- 
ered the  most  beautiful  comets  on  record.  Temple's 
comet  of  1866  is  unique  in  that  it  is  connected  with  the 
Leonid  meteors. 

The  next  notable  comet  was  the  Great  Southern 
Comet  of  1880.  It  was  visible,  however,  for  but  two 
or  three  weeks,  and  then  only  in  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere. It  passed  through  the  coronal  envelope,  and 
almost  grazed  the  sun,  after  which  it  retreated  in  a 
damaged  condition,  and  has  never  appeared  since. 
The  great  comet  of  1882  was  the  most  magnificent  in 
recent  years.  It  remained  in  sight  about  nine  months 
brandishing  a  portentous  scymitar-like  tail,  which  at 
its  best  was  one  hundred  million  miles  in  length.  It 
travelled  in  nearly  the  same  orbit  as  the  comets  of  1843 
and  1880.  After  it  the  best  comet  was  Daniel's 
comet  of  1907. 


412  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Morehouse's  comet  of  1908  (Plate  XXXIII. ),  although 
only  a  telescopic  object,  early  attracted  a  great  deal  of 
attention,  owing  to  the  transformations  which  it  under- 
went. Its  lightning  changes  of  form  and  its  periodical 
outbursts  were  most  remarkable.  Time  and  again  it 
lost  its  tail  and  as  often  formed  new  ones.  Its  spectrum, 
which  showed  the  presence  of  carbon  and  cyanogen,  was 
quite  different  from  that  of  previous  comets. 

The  Daylight  comet  of  1910,  called  comet  a  1910, 
was  a  "surprise  comet."  It  was  discovered  one  morn- 
ing in  January,  1910,  by  some  miners  in  South  Africa. 
After  it  passed  the  sun  and  became  visible  in  the  even- 
ing skies,  it  attracted  much  attention.  Its  tail  reached 
for  more  than  one  hundred  million  miles  across  the  sky. 

Comet  c  1911,  one  of  the  finest  lesser  comets  of  recent 
years,  was  discovered  by  Brooks  at  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  on 
July  20, 191 1.  To  the  naked  eye  it  appeared  as  a  hazy 
star,  and  showed  its  cometary  character  unmistakably 
in  an  opera-glass  or  prism  binocular.  In  September  it 
became  a  splendid  object  in  the  evening  sky,  a  photo- 
graph, taken  of  it  by  Barnard  on  the  22d,  showing  its 
slender  tail  to  be  15,000,000  miles  long,  and  its  head 
500,000  miles  in  diameter.  On  October  ist,  it  was 
brighter  than  the  fifth  magnitude,  and  was  telescopi- 
cally  visible  during  the  latter  half  of  November.  On 
September  I,  1913,  Metcalf  discovered  a  small  comet 
in  trie  constellation  Lynx.  It  was  a  telescopic  object 
of  about  the  tenth  magnitude,  and  was  known  as  comet 
b  1913.  For  more  details  about  these  filmy  voyagers 
the  reader  may  consult  Comets  and  Meteors. 

METEORS  AND   METEORITES 

Meteors,  popularly  known  as  shooting-stars  or 
"fiery  tears, "  are  for  the  most  part  very  small  bodies — 


Comets  and  Meteors  413 

minute  fragments  of  cometary  debris — moving  about 
in  space  unnoticeable,  except  when  they  come  near  the 
earth  and  enter  its  atmosphere.  They  are  not  intrinsi- 
cally luminous,  but  the  friction  resulting  from  their 
rush,  usually  obliquely,  toward  the  earth  and  through 
the  atmosphere,  at  an  average  speed  of  nineteen  to 
twenty-five  miles  a  second,  transforms  the  motion  into 
heat. 

The  small  particles  of  meteoric  matter  rapidly 
become  incandescent,  and  burn  like  true  stars  with 
great  brilliancy.  Their  glory,  however,  is  but  for  the 
moment,  as  even  their  visibility  portends  their  disso- 
lution. Obviously  the  smaller  ones  are  consumed  by 
the  excessive  heat,  their  remains  falling  to  the  earth 
in  ferruginous  dust  mixed  with  carbon  and  nickel.  An 
occasional  meteor  survives  the  fiery  ordeal,  and  per- 
chance penetrates  to  the  earth 's  surface.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  every  day  the  dust  of  some  four  hun- 
dred million  meteors  falls  imperceptibly  to  the  surface 
of  the  earth. 

The  researches  of  Schiaparelli,  Denning,  and  others 
have  shown  that  meteors  are  probably  the  disintegrated 
parts  of  comets  which  have  exhausted  their  cometary 
destiny,  and  no  longer  maintain  a  corporate  existence. 
They  generally  travel  together  in  swarms,  which  cir- 
cuit around  the  sun  in  elongated,  elliptical  paths,  that 
resemble  cometary  orbits.  Some  of  the  orbits  are 
actually  those  of  known  comets. 

Meteors  come  from  definite  areas  of  the  sky,  and 
arrive  in  swarms  at  certain  times  of  the  year,  though 
some  may  be  seen  almost  any  night.  That  quarter  of 
the  heavens  from  which  a  shower  of  meteors  comes  is 
called  a  " radiant."  Three  of  the  principal  meteor 
swarms  are  well  known  and  give  rise  to  fine  displays. 


4H  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

They  are  the  "Leonids"  and  the  "Bielids,"  which 
appear  in  November,  and  the  "Perseids"  or  August 
meteors.  The  most  famous  of  these  is  probably  the 
Leonid  display.  It  received  the  name  Leonids,  because 
the  radiant  from  which  the  meteors  seemed  to  diverge 
is  situated  in  the  head  of  the  constellation  Leo.  For 
some  thirteen  centuries  the  maximum  showers  have 
appeared  with  considerable  regularity  every  thirty- 
three  and  a  quarter  years.  These  Leonid  meteors 
form  a  compact  swarm,  and  travel  along  the  same  orbit 
as  Temple's  comet  of  1866.  The  grandest  display  was 
that  seen  in  the  early  morning  hours  of  November  12, 
J833,  when  meteors  fell  from  the  starry  vault  numerous 
as  the  flakes  of  a  shower  of  snow,  and  a  ball  of  fire  was 
seen  at  Niagara  Falls  as  large  as  the  moon.  It  is 
estimated  that  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  meteors 
appeared  inside  of  seven  hours.  In  1 866  the  shower  was 
abundant  and  brilliant,  but  in  1899  the  display  was 
scanty  and  ineffective.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
there  are  several  parallel  streams  of  the  November 
meteors,  some  of  which  are  distributed  entirely  around 
the  orbit,  so  that  about  the  I5th  of  November  each 
year  a  few  of  them  may  be  seen. 

The  "Andromedid"  shower  occurs  between  the 
23rd  and  2 7th  of  November.  It  received  its  name 
because  the  meteors  appear  to  issue  from  the  direction 
of  the  constellation  Andromeda.  The  meteors  have 
also  been  termed  "  Bielids, "  because  their  orbit  is 
closely  related  with  that  of  the  missing  comet  of  Biela, 
the  disaggregated  remains  of  which  may  have  aided  the 
swarm  in  taking  on  increased  activity.  During  the 
Andromedid  display  in  1885  a  meteoric  mass  fell  at 
Mazapil,  in  northern  Mexico,  which  some  have  thought 
may  be  a  piece  of  Biela's  comet.  It  is  now  in  the 


Comets  and  Meteors  415 

Museum  at  Vienna.  It  weighed  about  ten  pounds, 
and  was  composed  of  iron  alloyed  with  nickel. 

The  August  swarm  occurs  on  the  loth  of  the  month, 
and  has  received  the  name  of  "Perseids, "  because  the 
radiant  point  is  situated  in  the  constellation  Perseus. 
It  has  also  been  called  the  "tears  of  St.  Lawrence,'* 
as  the  feast  of  that  saint  is  on  August  loth,  the  date  of 
the  maximum  shower.  Its  history  may  be  traced  back 
to  811  A.D.  The  orbit  of  this  swarm  is  a  very  elonga- 
ted ellipse,  and  has  been  identified  with  that  of  Tuttle  's 
comet  of  1862.  The  comet  of  1532  also  belongs  to  the 
Perseid  orbit,  and,  if  not  already  disintegrated,  should 
return  in  1919.  The  showers  of  the  Perseid  meteors  are 
not  limited  to  the  date  of  August  loth  to  the  I2th,  for 
meteors  may  fall  in  greater  or  less  numbers  for  ten  days 
each  way.  These  meteors  travel  very  rapidly,  and  fall 
at  the  rate  of  about  sixty  an  hour.  Their  luminous 
ephemeral  trails  often  persist  for  a  minute  or  two  before 
they  become  disseminated. 

The  meteor  showers  of  April  2Oth  are  known  as  the 
"LyridSo"  They  correspond  in  regard  to  their  orbits 
with  the  comet  of  1861,  and  appertain  to  the  constel- 
lation Lyra. 

Comparatively  rare  and  startling  are  the  objects 
called  "fireballs "  or  bolides — solid  meteorites  of  various 
shapes  and  sizes,  which  burn  in  the  air  during  their 
flight.  They  enter  the  earth's  atmosphere  with  a 
velocity  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  miles  a  second,  and 
quickly  become  incandescent.  Their  speed  soon  moder- 
ates, so  that  about  the  time  they  disappear  they  may  not 
be  moving  more  than  a  mile  a  second.  They  generally 
make  their  appearance  at  an  altitude  of  from  seventy- 
five  to  one  hundred  miles,  and  are  seldom  visible  after 
having  descended  to  within  five  miles  of  the  earth's 


416  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

surface.  Often  while  high  up  in  the  air  they  burst 
into  luminous  fragments,  which,  unless  consumed  in 
their  flight,  fall  with  a  great  rushing  noise  to  the  earth, 
sometimes  striking  with  such  force  as  to  bury  themselves 
in  the  ground.  Not  infrequently  the  train  of  sparks 
that  usually  follows  a  great  fireball  persists  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  as  occurred  on  February  22,  1909,  when 
a  fireball,  which  passed  over  southern  England,  left  a 
luminous  train  that  remained  visible  for  two  hours, 
drifting  and  turning  in  the  wind. 

In  one  of  Raphael's  finest  pictures,  The  Madonna  of 
Foligno,  which  dates  from  1512,  a  fireball  may  be 
seen  beneath  a  rainbow,  the  great  painter  desiring 
thus  to  preserve  the  memory  of  it  as  it  fell  near  Milan 
on  September  4,  1511. 

When  meteors  come  hurtling  down  through  the 
atmosphere  and  reach  the  earth,  they  are  called  mete- 
orites, of  which  there  are  two  kinds,  the  stony  and  the 
iron.  Those  containing  an  admixture  of  iron  and  stone 
are  known  as  siderolites.  The  iron  meteorites,  or 
"siderites,"  are  associated  with  comets,  and  are  com- 
posed almost  entirely  of  iron  and  nickel,  but  contain  also 
hydrogen,  helium,  and  carbon.  The  stony  meteorites, 
or  "aerolites,"  are  many  times  more  numerous  than 
the  iron  meteorites,  and  move  usually  with  terrestrial 
velocities,  while  the  iron  meteorites  move  much  faster. 
According  to  Berwerth  of  Vienna,  some  nine  hundred 
meteorites  of  noticeable  size  fall  on  the  earth  each  year. 

There  are  many  remarkable  stories  handed  down  from 
early  times  of  stony  meteorites  falling  from  the  sky, 
like  that  of  the  "Nemaean  Lion,"  or  "Lion  of  the 
Peloponnesus,"  which,  it  is  believed,  fell  out  of  the 
moon  upon  the  isthmus  of  Corinth.  Tradition  says 
that  the  shapeless  block  on  which  Diana  of  Ephesus 


Comets  and  Meteors  417 

stood  was  a  meteoric  stone.  The  celebrated  "black 
stone"  in  the  Caaba,  an  old  temple  at  Mecca,  and  the 
"Palladium"  of  ancient  Troy,  which  were  supposed  to 
be  gifts  handed  down  from  heaven,  were  probably  stony 
meteorites.  The  star-stone,  which  fell  all  on  fire,  near 
Egos  Potamos,  in  Thrace,  in  406  B.  C.,  and  which  was 
described  as  being  the  size  of  two  millstones,  was  one 
of  the  most  famous  meteorites  of  antiquity. 

The  dimensions  of  meteorites  vary  considerably, 
from  impalpable  dust  to  blocks  weighing  many  tons. 
The  National  Museum  at  Washington  contains  some 
remarkable  specimens  of  meteoric  stones  and  meteoric 
irons.  In  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
New  York,  is  the  "Long  Island"  meteorite,  the  largest 
stone  meteorite  known.  It  was  found  in  more  than  three 
thousand  pieces,  and  weighed  a  little  over  thirteen 
hundred  pounds.  The  mass,  it  is  thought,  burst  just 
as  it  struck  the  ground,  near  the  town  of  Long  Island, 
Kansas.  Two  of  the  best  known  instances  of  stony 
meteorites  with  high  velocities  are  the  six-hundred-and- 
sixty-pound  one,  which  fell  at  Knyahinya,  Hungary, 
and  the  seven-hundred-pound  one  that  fell  at  Amana, 
Iowa. 

In  Greenland  and  Mexico  are  found  quantities  of 
meteoric  iron  in  such  masses  as  for  years  to  have 
furnished  the  natives  with  workable  iron.  The  first 
iron  used  was  called  by  the  Greeks  aJStjpoq,  because 
it  was  sidereal  or  meteoric. 

The  iron  meteorite,  "Ahnighito,"  brought  to  the 
United  States  by  Peary,  from  Cape  York,  Greenland, 
is  one  of  the  largest  known.  It  is  now  in  the  foyer 
collection  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
New  York,  and  weighs  over  thirty-six  and  a  half  tons. 
The  equally  large  mass,  discovered  at  Bacubirito, 
27 


418  The  Call  of  the  Stars 

Mexico,  weighs  about  twenty  tons.  The  Willamette 
meteorite  found  in  the  forest  about  nineteen  miles 
south  of  Portland,  Oregon,  in  1902,  is  the  largest  ever 
found  in  the  United  States.  It  is  about  ten  feet  long, 
six  feet  high,  and  four  feet  thick,  and  weighs  over  fifteen 
tons. 

In  the  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Chicago, 
are  a  number  of  meteoric  irons,  known  as  Canyon 
Diablo  meteorites.  Lying  a  mile  or  two  to  the  east 
of  Canyon  Diablo,  in  northern  Arizona,  is  Coon- 
Mountain  crater,  about  which  masses  of  meteoric  iron, 
specimens  of  which  became  popularly  famous  because 
they  contained  minute  fragments  of  diamond,  are 
scattered  in  concentric  distribution  to  a  distance  of 
nearly  five  miles.  The  crater  is  an  almost  perfectly 
round  hole  over  four  thousand  feet  in  diameter,  and 
about  six  hundred  feet  in  depth,  and  is  believed  to  have 
been  formed  by  the  impact  of  a  meteorite  of  enormous 
and  hitherto  unprecedented  size,  but  which  remains 
as  yet  undiscovered.  It  has  been  conjectured  that 
this  monster  meteorite  had  a  probable  diameter  of  five 
hundred  feet,  and  was  one  of  a  flock  of  great  meteorites 
that  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  large  comet,  which  possibly 
struck  the  earth,  according  to  geological  indications, 
not  more  than  five  thousand  years  ago. 


PLATE  XLIII.     The  Great  Yerkes  Telescope 

(40-inch  Refractor) 


INDEX 


Aberration  of  light,  77,  247 
Achernar  (a'-ker-nar),in  Eridanus, 

198 
Adams,  J.  C.,  and  Neptune,  279, 

399 

Aerolites,  416 

^Esculapius,  prophecy  concerning, 

97 

Age  of  the  earth,  310 

Ahnighito,  the  Cape  York  me- 
teorite, 417 

Albedo  (al-be'-do),  or  light-re- 
flecting power,  299 

Albireo  (al-bi'-re-o),  beautiful 
double  star,  123 

Al-Chiba   (al-ki-ba/),   in  Corvus, 

55 

Alcor  (80  Ursae  Majoris),  43 
Alcyone     (al-sl'-6-ne),     Madler's 

central  sun,  176 

Aldebaran  (al-deb'-ar-an),  in  Tau- 
rus, 172 

Alderamin  (al-de-ra'-min),  or  Al- 
pha Cephei,  159 
Algedi,  in  Capricornus,  129 
Algenib    (al-gen'-ib),   in   Perseus, 

146 
Algenubi  (al-gen-u'-bl),  or  Epsilon 

Leonis,  52 

Algieba  (al-je'-ba,),  in  Leo,  51 
Algol  (al'-gol),  the  Demon  Star, 

147 

variables,  237 

Algorab    (al-go-rab'),   in  Corvus, 

Alioth  (al'-i[-6th),  43 

Alkalurops      (al-ka-lu'-r5ps),     in 

Bootes,  75 
All  Hallow  Eve,  180 
All  Saints'  Day,  180 
All  Souls'  Day,  180 
Almaak  (al-ma-ack'),  156 


Alnilam  (al-nMam'),  189 

Alnitak  (al-ni-tak7),  189 

Alpha  Centauri  (al'-fa  sen-taw'- 
re),  115 

Alpha  Crucis  (al'-fa  cru'-sis),  8 

Alphard  (al-fard'),  in  Hydra,  54 

Alphecca  (al-fek'-ka),  86 

Alpheratz  (al-fe'-rats),  156 

Alpine  Valley,  349 

Al  Rischa  (al-rf-shaO,  or  the  Knot 
Star,  1 68 

Altair  (al-ta'-ir),  109 

shaft  of,  1 08 

Amazon  Star,  188 

American  Association  of  Variable 
Star  Observers,  236 

Ephemeris,  269 

Anderson,  Dr.  T.  D.,  discovery 
of  Nova  Persei,  149,  and 
of  Nova  Aurigae,  197 

Andromeda  (an-drom'-e-da),  con- 
stellation of,  154 

great  nebula  in,  157 

myth  of,  155 

Andromedid  meteors,  414 

Annular  eclipse  of  sun,  360 

Antares  (an-ta'-r5z),  91 

Antinous  (ari-tm'-o-us),  constella- 
tion of,  107 

myth  of,  1 08 

Antlia,  or  the  Air  Pump,  con- 
stellation of,  54 

Apennines,  lunar,  349 

Apex  of  Sun's  Way,  100 

Apsides  (ap'-s?-dez),  defined,  318 

Aquarius  (a-kwa'-d-us),  constella- 
tion of,  133 

myths  of,  134 

Aquila  (ak'-wl-la),  constellation 
of,  107 

family  of,  100 

myths  of,  108 

Arcandum,  quoted,  114 

Archer,  the,  112 


419 


420 


Index 


Arcturus  (ark-tG'-rus),  72 

Argo      Navis      (ar'-go     na'-vis), 

constellation  of,  57 
Argonautic  expedition,  214 
Ariadne's  (ar-i-ad'-nez)  Crown,  84 
Aries    (a'-rf-es),   constellation  of, 

141 

First  Point  of,  28,  142 

myth  of,  142 

Arion,  legend  of,  131 

Arrhenius,  theory  of,  409 

Ascension,  right,  defined,  25,  327 

Aselli  (a-sel'-li),  64 

Ashen  light,  337 

Aso  San  in  Japan,  345 

Asterion,    one    of    the    Hunting 

Dogs,  71 

Asteroids,  or  planetoids,  274,  375 
Asterope  (as-ter'-o-pe),  175 
Astraea  (as-trg'-a),  60 
Astrology  and  the  Bear's  tail,  42 
Astronomer-priests,  the  Egyptian, 

3°. 

Astronomical  psalm,  the,  27 

Atmosphere,  the,  312 
Atwood's  "Celestial  Sphere,"  281 
August  meteors,  or  Perseids,  415 
Auriga   (aw-ry'-ga),  constellation 

of,  193,. 

myths  of,  194 

Aurora  Australis,  227 

Borealis,  226 

Autumnal  equinox,  26 
Autumn,  the  night-sky  of,  126 


B 


Bacchus,  crown  given  Ariadne  by, 

85 

Bacubirito  meteorite,  417 

Baily's  Beads,  361 

Balance,  the,  82 

Ballad  of  Sir  Patrick  Spens,  337 

Barnard,  E.  E.,  director  of  Yerkes 
Observatory,  cited,  98, 218, 
243,  278,  380,  386,  390,  392 

quoted,  107,  190 

Base-line  for  parallax  measures, 

245 

Bay  of  Fundy,  tides  in,  322 
Bay  of  Rainbows,  342 
Bayeux  tapestry  (ba-yu'),  405 
Bear  Driver,  70 

Greater,  constellation  of,  36 

— —  Lesser,  constellation  of,  45 


Beehive,  the,  64 
Bellatrix  (bel-la'-trfx),  188 
Belopolsky,  A.,  rotation  of  Venus, 

305 

Belt  of  Orion,  1 88 

Belts  of  Jupiter,  383 

Benetnasch  (be-net  -nash),  42 

Berenice's  Hair,  constellation  of, 
67 

Berlin  Observatory,  399 

Betelgeux  (bet-el-guz')  or  Betel- 
geuse  (bet'-e'l-gooz),  186 

Bickerton,  A.  W.,  cited,  6,  260 

Biela's  comet  (Bg'-la's  kSm'-et), 
409 

Big  Diamond,  137 

Big  Dipper,  the,  37 

Binaries,  spectroscopic,  233 
—  visual  or  telescopic,  232 

Binary  stars,  232 

Binocular,  the  prism,  4 

Birmingham,  J.,  amateur  Irish 
astronomer,  87 

Birth  of  solar  systems,  259 

Black  Stone,  the,  417 

Blaze  Star,  87,  241 

Bode's  Law,  375 

Bond,  W.  C,  first  director  of 
Harvard  College  Observ- 
atory, cited,  158,  256, 

393 

Bootes  (bo-o'-tsz),  constellation 
of  70 

myths  of,  71 

Bowl,  the  inverted,  164 

Bow-man,  the,  112 

Bradley,  J.,  discovery  of  aberra- 
tion of  light,  77 

B redichin 's  classification  of  comets' 
tails,  409 

theory,  408 

Bridges  on  sun-spots,  289 

Bright-line  nebulas,  228 

Brooks's  comets,  409,  412 

Bull,  the,  or  Taurus,  169 


Caaba,  black  stone  in  the,  417 
Caesar,  Augustus,  82 

Julius,  330 

Calendar,  330 
Calydonian  boar,  214 
Camelopardalis  (kam-e'l-o'-par'-da- 
Hs),  constellation  of,  169 


Index 


421 


Campbell,    W.    W.,    director    of 
Lick  Observatory,  cited,  17, 

231,  369 

Campus  Martins,  374 
"Canals"  of  Mars,  371 
Cancer,  constellation  of,  63 

myths  of,  65 

Canes  Venatici  (ka'-nez  ven-at'- 

J-sl),  constellation  of,  68 
Canis    Major,    (ks'-nfe    ma'-jor), 

constellation  of,  201 

myths  of,  201 

Canis    Minor    (ka'-nfe    ml'-nor), 

constellation  of,  207 

myths  of,  207 

Canopus  (kan-o'-pus),  58 
Canyon  Diablo,  crater  at,  418 
Cape  Heraclides,  340 
Capella  (ka-pel'-la),  and  the  Kids, 

193 

Caph  (kaff),  in  Cassiopeia,  152 
Capricornus  (kap-rl-kor'-nus) ,  con- 
stellation of,  128 

myths  of,  129 

Capture  Theory  of  See,  263 
Carbon  dioxide,  312,  370 
Cardan,  the  astrologer-physician, 

42 

Carnival,  origin  of,  395 
Carpathian  mountains,  349 
Cassini,  G.  D.,   first  director  of 
Paris  Observatory,  discov- 
eries of,  210,  392 
Cassini's  division,  392 
Cassiopeia  (kas-sl-o-pe'-ya),  con- 
stellation of,  150 

myths  of,  151 

Castor,  or  Alpha  Geminorum,  210 
Caucasus,  lunar  mountains,  349 
Celaeno    (se-le'-no),    an    Atlantid 

nymph,  178 

Celestial   latitude  and   longitude 
defined,  25 

photography,  256 

yardstick,'  9 

Centauri,  Alpha,  parallax  of,  251 

Omega,  cluster  of,  116 

Centaurus     (sen-taw'-rus),     con- 
stellation of,  115 
Cepheid  variables,  160,  238 
Cepheus  (se'-fe-us),  constellation 
of,  158 

myths  of,  159 

Cerealia,  378 

Ceres,  the  planetoid,  376 


Ceti,  Mira,  the  mysterious,  165, 

237 

Cetus   (se'-tus),  constellation   of, 

164 

myth  of,  164 

Chair,  Cassiopeia's,  150 
Chamberlin  and  Moulton's  plan- 

etesimal  hypothesis,  259 
Chaos,  Ovid  on,  319 
Chara  (ka'-ra)  one  of  the  Hunting 

Dogs,  71 

Charioteer,  the,  193 
Charles's  Wain,  38 
Chart  of  the  Heavens,  6 

Spring  Night-Sky,  32 

Summer  Night-Sky,  80 

Autumn  Night-Sky,  126 

Winter  Night-Sky,  161 

Cheops     (ke'-ops),    pyramid    of, 

30 
Chephren  (kSf'-ren),  pyramid  of, 

29 

Chicago,  tide  at,  323 
Chi  Cygni,  125 
Chi  Persei  (ki  per'-se-i),  148 
Christ,  birth  of,  319 
Chromosphere  of  sun,  293 
Circlet  in  the  Western  Fish,  167 
Circumpolar  constellations,  37 
Civil  day,  the,  328 
Clock,  mean  solar,  325 

the  sidereal,  326 

Clouds,  the  Magellanic,  223 
Cluster,  the  Jewelled,  235 
Clusters,  star,  234 
Coal-Sacks,  94,  115,  122,  221 
Colossus,  the  famous,  296 
Colour  of  stars,  13,  232 
Columba  Noachi,  constellation  of, 

200 
Columbus,  Christopher,  anecdote 

of,  359 

Colures  (ko-lurs')  defined,  44 
Coma  Berenices  (ko'-ma  be'r-e-nl'- 

se"z),  constellation  of,  67 

myth  of,  67 

Comet     family,     Jupiter's,    276, 

403 

Comets,  402 
Comparison  stars,  236 
Conjunction,  defined,  268 
Constellations,  number  of,  23 

origin  of,  21 

the  zodiacal,  23 

Contraction  of  sun,  286 


422 


Index 


Copernicus,  lunar  crater,  348 

Nicholas,  271 

Cor  Caroli,  the  beautiful,  68 

Cor  Hydrse,  or  Alphard,  54 

Cor  Scorpionis,  91 

Cor  Serpentis,  99 

Corona,  the  solar,  293 

Corona    Borealis    (ko-ro'-na    bo- 

re-a'-lis),  constellation   of, 

84 

myth  of,  85 

Coronium  (ko-ro'-nf-um),  294 
Corvus    (kor'-vus),    constellation 

of,  54 

myth  of,  55 

Cosmic  dust,  263 

Council  of  Nice,  335 

Counter-glow,  225 

Crab,  the,  or  Cancer,  63 

Crab  Nebula  in  Taurus,  181 

Crabtree,  William,  307 

Crater  (kra'-ter),  constellation  of, 

56 

myths  of,  57 

Craters,  lunar,  345 
Cr6pe  ring  of  Saturn,  393 
Crescent  moon,  336 
Crimson  Star,  200 
Cross-motion  of  stars,  17 
Cross,  St.  Andrew's,  96 

the  Northern,  121 

the  Southern,  116 

Crown,  the  Pearl  of  the,  86 
Crucifixion,  date  of,  319 
Culmination,  point  of,  35 
Cupid's  arrow,  106 
Cursa    (kur-sa/),     in     Eridanus, 

199 

Curvature  of  earth,  309 
Cycle,  the  sun-spot,  289 
"Cygni,  61,"  124 
Cygnus    (sig'-nus),   constellation 

Of,  121 

myths  of,  122 

Cysat  of  Lucerne,  first  observer  of 
Orion  nebula,  191 


Daniel's  comet,  41 1 
Dark  nebulae,  221 
Dark  stars,  15,262 
Darwin,  Sir  G.  H.,  on  tidal  fric- 
tion, 323 
Date-line,  the  international,  329 


Day,  All  Saints',  180 
—  All  Souls',  1 80 

change  of,  329 

lunar,  325 

St.  Martin's,  340 

St.  Swithin's,  340 

sidereal  and  solar,  325 

Daylight  comet,  412 

Day  star,  294 

Dead  suns,  15,  262 

Declination,  defined,  25 

Deimos  (dl'mos),  satellite  of  Mars, 

373 

Delisle's  method,  248 

Delphinus,  (del-fi'-nus),  constella- 
tion of,  131 
myth  of,  131 

Demon  star,  147 

Deneb  (den'-eb),  in  Cygnus,  123 

Denebola  (de-neb '-o-la),  50 

Dial,  the  heavenly,  324 

Diamond,  the  Big,  137 

the  Little,  159 

of  Virgo,  the,  51,  68 

Diana,  the  Huntress,  185 

Diffraction  grating,  254 

Diphda,  in  Cetus,  165 

Dipper,  the  Big,  37 

the  Little,  46 

the  Milk,  112 

of  the  Pleiades,  the  little,  175 

Dispersion  of  light  by  the  prism, 
252 

Distance    of    moon,  how    deter- 
mined, 246 

of  sun,  how  determined,  248 

Distances  of  the  stars,  9,  250 

Dog-days,  origin  of,  202 

Dog-star,  202 

Dolphin,  the,  131 

Donati's  comet,  41 1 

Double  stars,  231 

Draco  (dra'-co),  constellation  of, 

75 

myths  of,  78 

Draconitic  month,  356 
Dragon,  the  great,  75 
Drift,  solar,  100,  285 

stellar,  19 

Dubhe     (dub'-he),    one    of    the 
Greater  Bear's  pointers,  44 
Dumb-bell  Nebula,  106 
Duplication  of  stellar  figures,  22 
Duration  of  lunar  eclipse,  358 
of  solar  eclipse,  361 


Index 


423 


E 


Eagle,  the,  107 

Earth,  age  of,  310 

meteoric    contributions    to, 

4!3 

myths  of,  318 

the  planet,  272,  309 

rigidity  of,  310 

Earth-shine  on  the  moon,  337 
Easter,  the  festival  of,  335 
Eclipse,  black,  358 

year,  356 

Eclipses,  lunar,  357 

solar,  360 

of  Jupiter's    satellites,   250, 

387 

Ecliptic,  obliquity  of,  25 
Egyptian  astronomer-priests,  30 
Electricity,  speed  of,  9 
Elgie,  J.  H.,  quoted,  161,  224 
El  Nath,  or  Beta  Tauri,  181, 196 
Elongation,  defined,  268 
Eltanin    (el'-ta-nm),   "the  zenith 

star, "  77 

Emerald  star,  the,  84 
Enceladus  (en-sel'-a-dus),  394 
Encke's  (En'-ker's)  comet,  404 

division,  392 

Enebo's   Nova,   in  Gemini,   213, 

242 

Enif  (en'-ff),  in  Pegasus,  140 
Equation  of  time,  327 
Equator,  celestial,  26 
Equinoctial  colure,  44 
Equinoxes,  the,  26 

precession  of  the,  28 

Equuleus      (e-kwoo'-le-us),      the 

Little  Horse,  132 
Equus  or  Equuleus,  constellation 

of,  132 

Eridanus  (e-rfd'-a-nus),  constella- 
tion of,  197 

myths  of,  198 

Eros,  the  planetoid,  377 

observations     for    parallax, 

249 

Eruptive  prominences,  292 
Esculapius,  prophecy  concerning, 

97 

Establishment  of  port,  320 
Eta  Aquilae,  238 
Eta  Argus,  58 
Europa,  myth  of,  170 
Everest,  Mount,  311,  348 


Extra- Neptunian  planet,  280 
Eyepieces  in  telescopes,  287 


Fabricius,   D.,   first   observer  of 

variables,  165 
Faculse  of  the  sun,  290 
Feast  of  Lanterns,  180 

of  Novrooz,  33 

Field-glasses,  4 

Fire-balls,  or  bolides,  415 

First-magnitude  stars,  6 

First  point  of  Aries,  28,  142 

Fish,  the  Southern,  135 

Fish-Mouth  Nebula,  190 

Fishes,   Northern    and    Western, 

the,  167 

Fixed  stars,  the,  16 
Flagstaff     (6800     ft.),     Arizona, 

Lowell  Observatory  at,  372 
Flammarion,  C.,  cited,  15 
Flamsteed,  John,  first  Astronomer 

Royal,  24,  77 
Folk-lore  of  the  moon,  351 
Fomalhaut  (fo'-mal-hot),  136 
Fornax,  constellation  of,  163 
Forty-seven  Toucanis,  120 
Fraunhofer,  von,  Josef  (yO'-sSf  fon 

fr6un'-ho-fer),  253 
Fraunhofer's  lines,  253 
Friction,  tidal,  323 
Full  moon,  the,  337 


Galaxy,  or  Milky  Way,  217 
Galileo  Galilei  of  Florence,  385, 

Galle,  J.  G.,  finds  Neptune,  399 
Garnet  Star,  or  Mu  Cephei,  160 
Gaseous  nebulae,  228 
Gases,  kinetic  theory  of,  299,  313 
Gate  of  the  Gods,  130 

of  men,  66 

Gazelle,  the,  52 

"  Gegenschein  "  (ga'-g&i-shm),  the 

ghostly,  225 
Gemini    (jem-f-nl),    constellation 

of,  209 

myths  of,  213 

George    III.    pensions    Herschel, 

.396 

Georgium  Sidus,  the,  396 
Giant  planet,  the,  275,  380 


424 


Index 


"Giant's  Eyes,"  the,  209 

Gienah  (je'-nah),  in  Corvus,  55 

Gill,  Sir  David,  of  the  Cape  Obser- 
vatory, 249 

Giraffe,  the,  169 

Gnomon  of  sun-dial,  325 

Goad,  John,  quoted,  302 

Goblet  of  Apollo,  57 

Golden  Age,  the,  60, 395 
—  Fleece,  the,  57,  143,  214 

Gomeiza    (go-mei'-za),    in    Canis 
Minor,  208 

Goodricke,  J.,   on  variability  of 
Algol,  147 

Gore,  J.  E.,  of  Dublin,  194 

Gorgons,  the  Three,  145 

Grape-gatherer,  the,  62 

Grating,  diffraction,  254 

Gravitation,  law  of,  270 

Grazing  collision,  260 

Great    Pyramid,    the   long   slant 
passage  of,  29 

Square  of  Pegasus,  137 

White  Way,  the,  219 

Greater  Bear,  the,  36 

Dog,  the,  201 

Green  Flash,  the,  225 

Greenwich  Observatory,  289 

Greenwich  of  the  sky,  the,  28 

Gregorian  calendar,  331 

Groombridge  1830,  17 

"Guards"  of  the  Pole,  48 

Guides,  the  Three,  140 

Gulliver's  Travels,  273 


H 


Habitability  of  Mars,  372 
Hale,  G.  E.,  director  of  Mount 
Wilson  Solar  Observatory, 
on  the    spectroheliograph, 

255 

on  solar  prominences,  291 

on  sun-spots,  288 

Hall,  Asaph,  discovery  of  satellites 
of  Mars,  274 

Halley,  Edmund,  second  As- 
tronomer Royal,  410 

Halley's  comet,  410 

Hallow  Eve,  All,  180 

Hamal  (ham'-al),  143 

Harmonic  law  of  Kepler,  270 

Harp,  the  celestial,  99 

Harvard  College  Observatory,  197, 
213*  243,  256 


Harvard  Photometry,  Revised,  7 

Harvest  moon,  341 

Heavenly  Twins,  209 

Helium  in  the  stars,  15 

in  the  sun,  293 

Helmholtz,  on  solar  radiation,  286 

Henderson,  Thomas,  Scottish  as- 
tronomer, 115, 251 

Heraclides  promontory,  340 

Hercules   (her'-ku-lez),  constella- 
tion of,  116 
great  cluster  in,  120 

myths  of,  117 

Herod  the  Great,  359 

Herodotus,  valley  of,  350 

"Herschel"  eyepiece,  287 

Herschel,  Sir  John,  quoted,  280 

Sir     William,    discovery     of 

Uranus,  213,  396 

Hesperus,  or  Venus,  304 

Hipparchus  (Hip-par'-chus),  cele- 
brated Greek  astronomer, 
28 

Hippocrene,  fount  of,  138 

Hooke,  Robert,  English  astrono- 
mer, 77, 144 

Horn  of  plenty,  130 

Horrocks,  J.,  curate  of  Hoole,  307 

Horse,  the  Winged,  137 

Horus,  Egyptian  god  of  sun,  295 

Hour-glass  Sea,  373 

Hudibras,  Butler's,  and  astrology, 
42 

Huggins,  Sir  William,  English 
astronomer,  228 

Hunter's  moon,  341 

Hunting  Dogs,  68 

Huyghens,  C.,  the  great  Dutch 
astronomer,  392 

Hyades  (hl'-a-dez),  171 

Hydra,  constellation  of,  53 
—  myths  of,  53 

Hydrogen  in  the  stars,  15 


lapetus  (l-ap'-e-tus),  satellite  of 
Saturn,  and  a  variable,  394 

Imbrium,  Mare,  344 

Indian  summer,  340 

Inferior  conjunction,  defined,  268 

Inner  planets,  266 

International  date-line,  329 

photographic  survey  of  the 

sky,  6 


Index 


425 


Invisible  or  dark  stars,  15,  262 
Iridum,  Sinus,  342 
Iron,  meteoric,  417 


ewelled  Cluster,  the,  235 

ob's  Coffin,  or  the  Dolphin,  131 

ob's  Star,  or  Arcturus,  72 

ovian  belts,  383 

ulian  calendar,  330 

unp,  the  planetoid,  376 

upiter,    comet    family  of,    276, 

403 

the  giant  planet,  275,  380 

great  red-spot  on,  276,  384 

myths  of,  387 

satellites  of,  276,  384 

K 

"K,"  of  Cepheus,  45 

Kapteyn,  J.  C.,  cited,  20,  251 

Keeler,  J.  E.,  cited,  373,  393 

Kepler,  J.,  laws  of,  269 

Kepler's  Star,  99 

Kern-Baby,  61 

Keyhole  Nebula  in  Argus,  58 

"Keystone,"  the,  117 

Kinetic  theory  of  gases,  299,  313 

Kirchhpff,  G.  R.  (KIrk'-hof), 
interpretation  of  the  spec- 
trum, 253 

Knot-Star  or  Al  Rischa,  168 


Lace  Nebula,  the,  125 

Lacerta,  constellation  of,  169 

Ladle,  the,  112 

"  Lady  in  the  Chair,  "150 

Lady  in  the  Moon,  341 

Lake  of  Dreams,  344 

Lalande  21185,  9 

Lampland  of  Lowell  Observatory, 

371 

Lang,  Andrew,  cited,  61 

Langley,  S.  P.,  American  astrono- 
mer, 294 

Lanterns,  Feast  of,  180 

Laplace,  nebular  hypothesis  of, 
262 

Lassell,W.,  discovery  of  Neptune's 
satellite,  401 

La  Superba,  the  red  star,  43 


Latitude,  celestial,  25 

terrestrial,  25 

Law,  Bode's,  375 

Kepler's,  269 

Newton's,  270 

Leap-year,  rule  for,  331 

Leibnitz  mountains  (lunar),    350 

Leo,  constellation  of,  48 

myths  of,  49 

sickle  of,  49 

Leo  Minor,  constellation  of,  52 

Leonid  meteors,  414 

Lepus  (le'-pus),  constellation  of, 

199 
Lesser  Bear,  the,  45 

—  Dog,  the,  207 
Leverrier,  U.  J.  J.,  and  Neptune, 

279,399 
Libra,  constellation  of,  82 

myth  of,  82 

Librations  of  the  moon,  333 
Lick  Observatory,  230,  231,  373 
Light,  aberration  of,  77,  247 

the  Ashen,  337 

the  velocity  of,  9,  250,  387 

Light-year,  the,  9 

Lilac  stars,  67 

Line  of  sight,  motion  in,  17 

Linne",  lunar  crater,  348 

Lippershey,  Franz,  inventor  of  the 

telescope,  385 
Little  Dipper,  the,  46 
Little  Dipper  of  the  Pleiades,  175 
Long  Island  Sound,  tides  in,  322 
Longitude,  celestial,  25 

terrestrial,  25 

Lost  Pleiad,  the,  178 

Lowell,  Percival,  on  "canals"  of 

Mars,  372 

cited,  305,  306, 369 

quoted,  262 

Lowell  Observatory,  372 
Lucid  stars,  7 
Lucifer,  or  Venus,  304 
Lunar  Apennines,  the,  349 

Caucasus,  the,  349 

eclipses,  357 

fancies,  342 

phases,  336 

stars,  50 

Lynx,  constellation  of,  197 
Lyra,  constellation  of,  99 

myths  of,  100 

ring  nebula  in,  105 

Lyrid  meteors,  106,  415 


426 


Index 


M 


"M,"  of  Cassiopeia,  151 

Madonna  of  Foligno,  416 

Madler,  J.  H.,  theory  of  a  central 
sun,  176 

Magellanic  Clouds,  223 

Magnetic  storms,  290 

Magnifying  power  of  opera- 
glasses,  etc.,  4 

Magnitudes,  stellar,  5 

Magpie  bridge,  the  legend  of,  103 

Maia  (ma'-ya),  178 

Maiden's  Hair,  63 

Maintenance  of  solar  heat,  286 

Major  planets,  266 

Man  in  the  Moon,  the,  341 

Manger,  the,  64 

Marfik  (mar'-ffk),  in  Hercules, 
1 20 

Maria,  or  "seas,"  343 

Markab,  or  Alpha  Pegasi,  140 

Mars,  the  red  planet,  272,  366 

canals  of,  371 

myths  of,  374 

satellites  of,  373 

"Martial  Star,"  the,  187 

Martin,  Martha  E.,  quoted,  128, 

210,  215 

Mazzaroth,  27 

Mean  solar  day,  325 

solar  time,  325 

solar  year,  330 

Measurement  of  the  moon's  dis- 
tance, 246 

of  the  distance  of  stars,  250 

of  the  sun's  distance,  248 

standards  of,  38 

"Medicean  Stars,"  the,  385 

Mediterranean  Sea,  tides  in,  322 

Medusa,  the  head  of,  146 

Megrez  (me'-grez),  the  Cinderella 
star,  44 

Melotte,  P.,  of  Greenwich  Obser- 
vatory, 386 

Mendele"eff,  on  coronium,  294 

on  the  weight  of  the  atmos- 
phere, 313 

Menkalina  (mSn-ka-H-nah'),  196 

Menkar,  or  Alpha  Ceti,  165 

Mercury,  the  planet,  270,  297 

myths  of,  301 

transits  of,  301 

Meridian,  the,  35 

Merope  (mer'-O-pe),  177 


Mesarthim  (mes-ar-thfm'),  144 
Metcalf,  Rev.  J.  H.,  99,  412 
Meteoric  irons,  417 

—  stones,  417 
Meteorites,  416 
Meteors,  or  shooting  stars,  412 
Micromegas,  romance  of,  205 
Migrating  stars,  19 
Milan  Observatory,  371 
Milk  Dipper,  the,  112 
Milky  Way,  the,  217 

myths  of,  221 

Mintaka  (mm'-ta-ka),  189 

Mira  Ceti,  the  famous  variable, 

165,  237 
Mirach  (ml'-rak),  in  Andromeda, 

157 

Mirfak,  or  Alpha  Persei,  146 

Mirzam  (mer'-zam),  in  Canis 
Major,  206 

Mixing  Bowl,  the,  56 

Mizar  (ml'-zar),  42 

Mohammed's  star,  29 

Monoceros  (mo-nos'-er-os),  con- 
stellation of,  209 

Month,  the  common  or  synodical, 

329 
the    nodical    or    draconitic, 

356 

Months,  rule  for  length  of,  329 

Moon,  the,  332 

and  the  weather,  the,  337 

causes  tides,  the,  334 

dogged  by  a  star  or  a  planet, 

the,  338 

figures  in  the,  351 

the  harvest,  341 

the  hunter's,  341 

lack  of  atmosphere  in,  334 

librations  of,  333 

maiden,  the,  342 

— •  myths  of,  351 

old,  in  new  moon's  arms,  337 

the  paschal,  335 

phases  of  the,  336 

Morehouse's  comet,  412 

Motion,  in  line  of  sight,  17 

proper  or  cross,  17 

Motions  of  planets,  269 

Mount  Everest,  highest  terres- 
trial mountain,  348 

McKinley,  highest  peak  in 

North  America,  349 

Wilson    Solar    Observatory, 

120 


Index 


427 


Mountains,  lunar,  348 

Muller,   albedo  of  Jupiter,   382; 

and  of  Uranus,  397 
Multiple  stars,  231 
Mycerinus,  pyramid  of,  29 


N 


Naked     eye,     number    of     stars 

visible  to,  6 
Napoleon  and  the  comet  of  1811, 

.  407 

Nautical  Almanac,  269 
Naval  Observatory,  Washington, 

373 

Neap  tides,  the,  320 
Nebula  in  Andromeda,  157 

the  Crab,  181 

the  Dumb-bell,  106 

the  Keyhole,  58 

the  Lace,  125 

the  North  America,  125 

the  Omega,  115 

the  Orion,  190 

the  Owl,  44 

the  Ring,  105 

theTrifid,  115 

the  Whirlpool,  69 

Nebulae,  15,  228 

spiral,  230 

Nebular  hypothesis,  the,  262 
Nebulium  (ne-bu'-li-um),  191 
Nebulosities  of  the  Pleiades,  177 
Nebulous  stars,  229 
Nemaean  lion,  the,  49,  416 
Neon  discovered  by  Ramsay,  227 
Neptune,  the  planet,  279,  399 

myths  of,  401 

• —  satellite  of,  279,  401 
New  stars,  or  Novae,  240 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  law  of  gravita- 
tion, 270 

Nice,  council  of,  335 
Night-sky  of  Autumn,  the,  126 

of  Spring,  the,  32 

of  Summer,  the,  80 

of  Winter,  the,  161 

Nodes,  defined,  355 
Nodical  month,  356 
North  America  Nebula,  125 
Northern  Coal-sack,  122,  221 

Cross,  121 

Crown,  84 

Fish,  167 

Northern  Lights,  226 


North  Pole,  46 

Star,  or  Polaris,  47 

Nova  Aurigae,  197 

Lacertae,  169 

Novae,  or  new  stars,  240 
November  meteors,  414 
Nubecula  (nu-bek'-G-la)  Major,223 

Minor,  223 

Number  of  stars,  6 

O 

Oases  of  Mars,  371 

Obliquity  of  the  ecliptic,  25 

Octantis,  Sigma,  221 

Olbers,  H.  W.,  celebrated  German 

astronomer,  376 
Olcott,  W.  Tyler,  cited,  22,  104, 

168, 180 

quoted,  122 

Old  moon  in  new  moon's  arms,  337 
Omega    Centauri    (o-me'-ga   sen- 

taw'-re),  116 
Omicron  Ceti  (o-mi'-kron  se'-tl), 

or  Mira,  165,  237 
Opera-glasses,  magnifying   power 

of,  4 

Ophiuchus  (o-ff-u'-kus),  constella- 
tion of,  94 

myths  of,  96 

Opposition,  defined,  268 
Optically  double  stars,  231 
Orbits  of  comets,  402 

of  major  planets,  267 

of  terrestrial  planets,  266 

Origin  of  the  constellations,  21 
Orion  (G-rl'-on),  constellation  of, 

182 

belt  of,  188 

great  nebula  of,  190 

sword  of,  189 

myths  of,  184 

Oxygen  in  atmosphere,  312 


Pacific  Ocean,  tides  in,  322 
Palladium,  the,  417 
Parallax,  defined,  244 

of  moon,  246 

of  stars,  25 1 

of  sun,  247 

Paris  conference,  the,  6 

Observatory,  the,  6 

Parthenon,  the  celebrated,  180 
Passover,  the  Feast  of  the,  335 


428 


Index 


Paul,  St.,  sermon  on  Mars  Hill, 

22 

Pearl  of  the  Crown,  86 

Pegasus  (pgg'-a-sus),  constellation 
of,  137 

Great  Square  of,  137 

myths  of,  137 

Pentecost,  the  Feast  of,  335 

Periodic  comets,  403 

variables,  237 

Periodicity  of  sun-spots,  289 

Perrine,  C.  D.,  of  the  Lick  Obser- 
vatory, 230, 386 

Perrotin,  J.,  "canals "  of  Mars,  371 

Persei,  Nova,  149 

Perseid  meteors,  414 

Perseus  (peV-se-us),  constellation 
of,  144 

great  cluster  of,  148 

myths  of,  145 

sword-hand  of,  148 

Phaet,  or  Alpha  Columbse,  201 

Phaethon  driving  the  chariot  of 
the  sun,  89 

Phainomena,  the,  22 

Phases  of  the  moon,  336 

Phobos,  satellite  of  Mars,  373 

Phoebe,  satellite  of  Saturn,  394 

Phosphorescence  of  dark  side  of 
Venus,  306 

Phosphorus,  or  Verius,  304 

Photographic  chart  of  the  sky,  6 

Photography,  celestial,  256 

Photometry,  Harvard  revised,  7 

Photosphere  of  sun,  292 

Physical  doubles,  232 

Pickering,  E.  C.,  director  of 
Harvard  College  Observa- 
tory, cited,  43,  196 

W.  H.,  cited,  192,  345,  371, 

384, 394 
Pictor,    or    the    Painter  s    Easel, 

constellation  of,  17 
Pierre  de  Coulevain  (Mile.  Favre), 

cited,  13 

Pilgrim  Star,  or  Tycho's  Star,  153 
Pisces  (pis'-sez),  constellation  of, 

1 66 

myths  of,  167 

Piscis  Australis  (pis'-sifs  Aus-tral'- 

is),  constellation  of,  135 
Place  of  change  of  date,  329 
Planet,  extra-Neptunian,  280 
Planetary  nebulae,  229 
Planetesimal  hypothesis,  the,  259 


Planetoids,  or  Little  Planets,  274, 

375 

Planets,  description  of,  266 
Pleiad  month,  the,  180 
Pleiades  (ple'-ad-ez),  173 

myths  of,  177 

Pleione,  or  the  lost  Pleiad,  178 

Plough,  the,  38 

Po,  the  river,  197 

Poczobut,  M.   de   (deh  potch'-o- 

boot),    Polish  astronomer, 

98 

Pointers,  the,  38 
Polar  caps  of  Mars,  273,  369 
Polaris,  the  north  polar  star,  46 
Pole,  north  celestial,  motion  of,  28 

of  ecliptic,  28 

Pole-star,  how  to  find,  46 
Pole-stars,  succession  of,  29 
Pollux  (pol'-luks),  211 
Porrima,  or  Gamma  Virginis,  62 
Praesepe  (pre-se'-pe)  as  a  weather 

guide,  65 

Precession  of  the  equinoxes,  28 
Prism,  the  dispersion  of  light  by 

the,  252 

binocular,  the,  4 

Proctor,  Mary,  quoted,  151,  204 
Procyon     (pro'-si-on),    in    Canis 

Minor,  207 

Prognostics,  weather,  65,  338 
Prominences,  solar,  290 
Proper  motion  of  stars,  1 7 
Pulchrima,  74 
Pyramid  of  Cheops,  the,  30 
Pyramids  of  Gizeh,  the,  29 

Q 

Quadruple  stars,  231 
R 

Radial  velocity,  stellar,  17 
Radiant  points  of  meteors,  413 
Radiation  pressure,  409 
Radio-activity,    as    a    source    of 

heat  supply,  286 
Radius- vector  of  a  planet,  269 
Rainbows,  Bay  of,  342 
Rainfall  and  sun-spots,  290 
"Rain  stars,"  the,  172 
Ram,  the,  or  Aries,  141 
Ramsay,  Sir  William,  cited,  227 
Range  of  the  tides,  321 


Index 


429 


Ras  Algethi  (ras  al-je-te'),  "8 

Alhague  (ras  al-ha'-gwe),  97 

Rastaban  (ras-ta-ban'),  78 
Rays'  systems  on  the  moon,  350 
Reaping  Hook,  the,  50 
Red  region,  13,  125 

stars,  15 

Spot  of  Jupiter,  the,  276,  384 

Refraction,  atmospheric,  314 
Regulus  (reg'-Q-lus),  50 
Retrograde  motion  of  Phoebe,  394 
Reversing  layer  of  sun,  293 
"Rice  grain"  structure  of  photo- 
sphere, 293 
Rider-Star,  the,  43 
Rigel  (rl'-jel),  187 
Right  ascension,  defined,  25,  327 
Rigidity  of  the  earth,  310 
Rills  on  the  moon,  350 
Ring  mountains  of  the  moon,  345 

nebula,  the,  105 

Rings  of  Saturn,  277,  392 

R  Leonis,  52 

R  Leporis,  200 

Roche's  Limit,  260 

Roemer,  velocity  of  light,  387 

Romance  of  Micromegas,  205 

Rosse,  Lord,  Whirlpool  nebula,  69 

Rotch,  Lawrence,  cited,  312 

Royal  family  of  the  sky,  125 

stars  of  astrology,  the,  1 1 

Ruchbah  (ruk'-bah),  152 
Runaway  star,  the,  18 


Sagitta  (sa-jrt'-a),  constellation 
of,  1 06 

myths  of,  106 

Sagittarius  (saj-i-ta'-rf-us),  con- 
stellation of,  112 

myths  of,  113 

St.  Martin's  day,  340 

Paul  quoted,  22 

Swithin's  day,  340 

Saros,  or  eclipse  period,  the,  356 

Saturn,    the   ringed   planet,    276, 

389 

myths  of,  394 

the  ring  system  of,  277,  392 

satellites  of,  277,  393 

temple  of,  the,  395 

Saturnalia,  the,  395 

Scales,  the,  82 

Scheiner,  Julius,  quoted,  158 


Schiaparelli,  G.  V.  (skya-pa-reT- 
le),  cited,  265,  371 

Scintillation  of  stars,  the,  5 

Scorpio,  constellation  of,  87 

myths  of,  88 

Sculptor,  constellation  of,  127 

Scutum,  or  Sobieski's  Shield,  con- 
stellation of,  107 

Sea-goat,  the,  128 

Sea-monster,  the,  164 

"Seas,"  lunar,  343 

Seasons,  the,  316 

Seeliger,  Hugo,  cited,  66 

Seeliger's  hypothesis,  modifica- 
tion of,  243 

Segment  of  Perseus,  the,  145 

Serpens  (ser'-penz),  constellation 
of,  94 

myths  of,  96 

Serpent-holder,  the,  94 

Serviss,  G.  P.,  cited,  18,  35,  72, 
92,  138,  202 

quoted,  32,  191,  226 

Seven  Stars,  the,  180 

Shadow  bands,  361 

Shakespeare  and  the  man  in  the 
moon,  342 

Shaw,  cited,  312 

Sheliak,  pear-shaped  variable, 
104 

Shepherd's  moon,  341 

Shield  of  Orion,  184 

Shooting  stars,  412 

Sickle  of  Leo,  49 

Sidereal  month,  329 

day,  324 

time,  323 

year,  330 

Siderites  and  siderolites,  416 

Sight,  motion  in  line  of,  17 

Signs  of  the  zodiac,  the,  28 

Simul-transit  stars,  35 

Sinus  Iridum,  342 

Sirius,  the  radiant,  203 

Sixty-one  Cygni,  124 

Sky-student,  outfit  for  the,  35 

Slow- winking  star,  the,  147 

Smoked  or  coloured  glasses,  use 
of,  289 

Snow  on  Mars,  369 

Sobieski's  Shield,  107 

Solar  parallax,  247 

storms,  288 

system,  the  local,  origin  of, 

259 


430 


Index 


Solar — Continued 

system,  the  local,  future  of, 

262,  287 

system,  the  local,  synopsis  of, 

265 

time,  323 

Sollas,  W.  J.,  cited,  310 

Solstices,  the,  26 

Solstitial  colure,  the,  44 

Sosigenes,  Alexandrian  astrono- 
mer, 330 

Sound,  velocity  of,  9,  313 

Southern  Cross,  the,  116 

Fish,  the,  135 

Pointers,  the,  116 

Spectroheliograph,  the,  255 

Spectroscope,  the,  254 

Spectroscopic  binary  stars,  233 

shift,  255    -/ 

Spectrum  analygis^si 

Speed  of  light,  the,  9,  250 

Spica  (spl'-ka),  in  Virgo,  61 

Spinning  Damsel,  legend  of  the, 
103 

Spiral  nebulas,  230 

Spots  on  the  sun,  288 

Spring,  The  Night-Sky  of,  32 

tides,  320 

Square  of  Pegasus,  Great,  137 

Standard  time,  328 

Star  charts,  how  to  use,  34 

clusters,  234 

colours,  13 

magnitudes,  7 

and  planet  finder,  36 

the  swiftest  known,  17 

Stars,  "four  minutes  fast,"  24 

how  designated,  24 

number  of,  6 

the  rising  and  setting  of,  23 

Stefan's  law,  370 

Stellar  distances,  9,  244 

drift,  19,  20 

Stew-pan,  the,  147 

Stiklestad,  eclipse  of,  363 

Stonehenge,  296 

Storms,  magnetic,  290 

Streams  of  stars,  Kapteyn's  two, 

20 

Summer,  The  Night-Sky  of,  80 

solstice,  26 

Sun,  the,  284 

dependence  of  earth  on,  265 

eclipses,  of,  360 

motion  in  space,  285 


myths  of,  294 

stellar  magnitude  of,  8 

temperature  of,  285 

temples  of,  295 

Sun-dial,  at  Jaipur,  326 

time,  327 

"Sun-glow,"  the,  227 
Sun-spot  cycle,  289 
Sun-spots,  288 

Sun's  light  and  heat,  how  main- 
tained, 286 

Way,  the,  285 

Swan,  the  flying,  121 

Swastika  Cross,  the,  20 

Swift,  Dean,  on  satellites  of  Mars, 

273 

Sword  of  Orion,  189 
Sword-hand  of  Perseus,  148 
Synodical  month,  329 
Syrtis  Major,  Martian  gulf,  373 


T  Coronae,  87 
Tabernacles,  Feast  of,  335 
Table  of  solar  and  planetary  statis- 
tics, 282, 283 
Tails  of  comets,  409 
Tanabata,  festival  of,  104 
Taurus,  constellation  of,  169 

myths  of,  1 70 

Taurus  Poniatowski,  constellation 

of,  98 
"Tears  of   St.   Lawrence,"    149, 

4J5 
Temperatures,  underground,  rise 

of,  310 

Temple's  comet,  403,  414 
Temple    of    Castor    and    Pollux, 

215 

of  Saturn,  395 

Temporary  stars,  or  Novae,  240 

Terminator,  the,  336 

Terrestrial  planets,  266 

Thales,  eclipse  of,  362 

Theophilus,  lunar  crater,  346 

Theta  Orionis,  189 

"Three  Guides,"  the,  140,  152 

Thuban  (thu-ban'),  formerly  pole- 
star,  77 

Tides,  the,  319 

Time,  equation  of,  327 

sidereal  and  solar,  323 

Titan,  Saturn's  largest  satellite, 
and  a  variable,  393 


Index 


Titius,  discovery  of  Bode's  Law, 

375 
Transits  of  Mercury,  301 

of  Venus,  307 

Trapezium  of  Orion,  189 
Triangulum,  constellation  of,  141 
Trifid  nebula,  115 
Triple  stars,  231 
Tropical  year,  330 
Tuscarora  Deep,  the,  311 
Tuttle's  comet,  415 
Twilight,  315 
Twinkling  of  stars,  5 
Twins,  the  heavenly,  209 
Tycho,  ray-system  of,  347 
Tycho's  Star,  153,  240 

U 

Underground  temperatures,  310 

Unicorn,  the,  209 

Uranus,  the  planet,  277,  396 

myths  of,  398 

satellites  of,  278,  398 

Ursa  Major,  constellation  of,  36 

myths  of,  39 

Ursa  Minor,  constellation  of,  45 
myths  of,  46 


"V"  of  Taurus,  the,  172 

Variable  stars,  235 

Vega,  the  azure- tinted,  102 

Velocity  of  light,  9, 250 

of  solar  system,  cosmic,  18, 

285 

of  sound,  9,  313 

of  stars,  17 

Venus,  the  planet,  271,  302 

myths  of,  308 

phases  of,  27 1,  304 

transits  of,  307 

Vernal  equinox,  the,  26,  167,  324 
Vesta,  the  planetoid,  376 
Vindemiatrix  (vin-de-mJ-a'-trfks), 

62 


Vintage,  influence  of  comets  on, 

410 
Virgo,  constellation  of,  59 

myths  of,  60 

Vortices,  electrical,  288 
Vulpecula,  constellation  of,  106 

W 

" W"  of  Cassiopeia,  150 
Washington,  U.  S.  Naval  Observa- 
tory, 373 
Water,  lack  of,  on  moon,  334 

vapour  bands,  369 

Water-bearer,  the,  133 
Water- jar  of  Aquarius,  134 
Water-snake,  the,  53 
Wave  motion,  laws  of,  321 
Weather  foretold  by  Praesepe,  65 

the  moon  and  the,  338 

Western  Fish,  the,  167 
Whale,  the,  164 
Whirlpool  nebula,  69 
Willamette  meteorite,  418 
Williams,  Stanley,  cited,  381 
Winking  Demon,  the,  147 
Winter,  The  Night-Sky  of,  161 

solstice,  26 

Witt,  discovery  of  Eros,  377 
Wolf-Rayet  stars,  58 
Woman  in  the  moon,  the,  351 


"Y"  of  Aquarius,  134 
Year,  length  of,  330 

number  of  eclipses  in,  356 

the  opening  of,  33 

Young,  C.  A.,  cited,  202,  246 


Zenith  (ze'-nith),  14 
Zodiac,  the,  26 

signs  of  the,  28 

Zodiacal    (zo-di'-a-kal)   band,   or 

circle,  26 
—  light,  224 


14  DAY  USE 

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